Gone by Dawn
by The Lady Frost
Summary: It wasn't so far from a stroke of fate. A rookie in a dying city. A hero just trying to hold on. And twelves hours to try to fight their way out of a nightmare. It's a shame they're gonna have to do it running for their lives. Part one of three.
1. Dawn1

**Gone by Dawn**

* * *

**Part One:**

**-Downfall-**

* * *

**Chapter 1: Wrong Woman**

* * *

**Raccoon City **

* * *

The crackle of flames could still be heard within the hallowed halls of the once great museum. The station that remained was void, emptied out by harried hands and hired guns that had tried to hold the gates when the world had erupted in horror and blood. There was little left within but corpses piled like garbage behind doors locked to keep the burning horde at bay.

Jill Valentine crouched and put her hand on the burning forehead of her last companion. He'd been her superior once, before she'd been promoted to S.T.A.R.S. and even then, he'd been her friend. Marvin Branagh was dying. He didn't have long. Based on what she'd seen and the rate of infection, she give him less than six hours.

The mess of his abdomen was blood and oozing bite. When he looked at her out of bleary eyes gone yellow at the edges with liver failure, Jill whispered, "...why?"

He'd gotten himself killed trying to save her life. The horde was on her, she was trying to simply get out of goddamn alley to get back here to raid the S.T.A.R.S. gun locker again, and they'd found her. Marvin had waded in with a fire axe and a fury that had blasted around them all like the flames that burned in the night beyond the building. He'd freed her from them, at the expense of himself.

Now, he lay dying on the cot in the corner of the lobby. Jill wanted to help, she'd tried, at first hoping he'd been bitten on a limb they might remove to spare his life...but it wasn't meant to be. A child sized zombie had gotten him above the left hip, right under the goddamn vest he'd worn to stop bullets that had saved him in a shoot out with thugs but failed him against the undead. The bite wound was festering, and he was fading fast.

Jill rose and he grunted, "...didn't you see this movie?...the black guy always dies."

He was always trying to make jokes. Jill told him, voice firm, "I'm gonna find anything I can to stop it. Rest, ok? Just..."

She ran for the stairs. Her boots slapped as she did. She didn't think there was anything in the world to help him now, but she was going to try. Chambers had kept First Aid spray in her office.- a clever little bottle of coagulant that stopped the worst gunshot wound Jill had ever seen during a mission once. She was hoping it was still there and waiting. She'd finally located the key to the weapons locker on the body of the fallen mayor in the garage. She was hoping inside would be what she needed to get out of this city.

It was a disaster. It had fallen from infection to necropolis in less than eight hours. The hordes had over run the city, leaving nothing but death behind. She'd done her best to get out those she could, but the barricades and the blocks had sprung up quickly in an attempt to contain the fallout. As it stood, she had a handful of people hiding out in a warehouse on the west side of town waiting for her to return and blast them a path to safety. She needed something big enough to blow down the barricade to the mountains. Fuck the police, she thought, and it was amusing to know she'd once BEEN the police - it was time to carve their own path to safety.

Jill shoved the keycard into the computer and hit the button. The gate buzzed and retracted and just like that, Jill was face to face with her future. The grenade launcher had eighteen rounds in a bag that she slung over her shoulder after she holstered her 9mm. She caught a glimpse of the office she'd so faithfully served for so long and felt a pang of regret. There was Barry's disassembled handgun on his desk. There was Joseph's half eaten cupcake. Chris' rubber chicken and his guitar hanging on the wall behind his desk.

She raided Rebecca's desk and found another bag with two first aid sprays in it. Looping it over her chest, Jill turned to run for the door. Something made her freeze and wait. She heard the thump, the bump, and the clunk of sound beyond the door.

Head tilted, she eased back and slid against the wall into the shadows of Wesker's empty office. The door rattled on it's hinges as she slipped into his coat closet, held her breath, and peered through the crack in the door. The door to the S.T.A.R.S. office was thrown wide open.

She expected a horde, but it wasn't a horde. It was something so much worse. Huge, hairless, scarred and patched together by nightmares - he smelled like rotting meat and long dead bodies. He was ten feet tall and towering as he lumbered into the room in a dark coat turned to most rags over a muscled torso. His face was exposed gums and teeth in a sea of scars and squinting black eyes. She felt her whole body seize in fear as the enormous gun that encompassed his right hand lifted and aimed into the office.

He stopped, sniffing the air like a dog, and his grumbling voice echoed into the quiet, "...Starrrzzzzz..." A growl. A grunt. A groan? It was like nothing she'd ever heard.

It thumped into the office, gun aimed at the shadows. She watched it pause at the picture on the wall that showed them all in a happier time. She watched it stare and thought, wildly, it was LEARNING their faces. It turned away and thumped toward the door. It paused when it was just across from the office and Jill hunkered down, heart hammering, and prayed - _go away...go away...go away..._

It's head turned toward where she was hiding. She froze, grenade launcher clasped and ready, and waited for the moment it decided to turn that enormous gun on her...but it didn't. It just..walked away.

Her breath stayed held until she simply couldn't hold it anymore. It wheezed out of her lungs as she almost collapsed to the floor of the closet in relief. S.T.A.R.S. It was hunting S.T.A.R.S. Why? She had no doubt Umbrella had put it in place to finish off the thorns in its side that had once tried to expose what they'd found at that estate. What the hell was it? A suped up version of that thing they'd killed on the rooftop...what had the files called it? A tyrant.

Was that thing a tyrant?

It could _talk. _It appeared to have some level of reasoning. It had learned their faces in that photograph on the wall. She was nearly _certain._

_If the thing they'd faced on the roof had been human smart...would she even be standing here right now?_

The answer was too scary to think about. Jill eased open the closet door. She hefted the grenade launcher and slipped into the hallway aiming. She worked her way back toward the lobby with her heart pounding, but her newfound nemesis seemed to have left the area for the time being. It begged the question - was she the last S.T.A.R.S. member in this city? Who else might it be stalking? Rebecca, Chris, and Barry had all split up to head off to hunker down and hide. Chris was in the middle of a full scale investigation into Umbrella.

Who else was left?

They'd lost nearly everyone at the Spencer Mansion.

Who was it stalking?

The second she emerged into the lobby, she heard a shout. There was a clatter of battle and her feet pounded over the balcony to catch sight of Marvin, no longer Marvin at all, attempting to sever the jugular of a young guy in a blue jacket. He had a big whopping Magnum in his left hand shoved like a muzzle against Marvin's snapping jaws. He couldn't get the heavy thing that had once been her friend to back off from trying to eat his throat out.

Jill shouted, "GET DOWN!"

The guy ducked as best as he could and she blasted Marvin from the balcony with her handgun. The bullet spun him off and had him staggering into the desk and she commanded, "Finish him! HEAD SHOT!"

The strange thing? The guy in the jacket did just that. He lifted that big gun and put Marvin Branagh down with a clean shot through the left eye. The heavy round echoed through the lobby. The boom was incredibly loud. Jill winced at the unnecessary burst of it and hurried down the stairs, already commanding, "Come on...now."

He just followed her - no questions, no resistance. She had to admit, it was nice to have a change from being challenged by everyone she'd met so far. She led them through the receptionist office and into the hallway beyond. When they ducked into the locker room, Jill barred the door with the set of lockers she'd set up to secure her escape.

After a handful of silence, her new companion finally spoke, "...are you alright, ma'am?"

Was he kidding?

Jill turned to look at him. He was clean, which was odd in itself, and looked fresh and so wet behind the ears she could plant flowers there and watch them grow. He was handsome, painfully, in a way that he looked like someone should burst out of a corner with a camera and cry out - _gotcha! _As if they were in a bad movie instead of a real nightmare.

She shook her head and remarked, "You just blasted the brains of my last friend alive in this city all over the wall down there...so not exactly."

He winced. She grabbed his blue jacket and demanded, "Who are you? And what the hell are you doing here?"

Without missing a beat, he returned, "I'm rookie officer Leon S. Kennedy, ma'am...this was supposed to be my first day on the job."

Right.

_Right._

Marvin had been set to receive new recruits before the world had erupted. Jill laughed with ire and no humor at all and told him, "Shitty first day, Officer...and I don't think you'll be getting paid for it."

She let go of him and moved toward one of the lockers, telling him, "Kennedy...the marksman, right?"

He said softly, "...yes, ma'am."

"Fuck the ma'am shit, ok? I'm Valentine...or Jill if you want. No damn time for ma'am." She paused and opened a locker, rooting inside, "You should have been caught before you made it here. You didn't see the road blocks?"

He furrowed his brow, "No ma-. No. The road was clear until the gas station on the outside of town. I saw the...gathering? And assumed maybe there was gang activity. I hurried here hoping to help."

Jesus, what a baby. She paused, shoved a vest at him, and told him, "...you better mean it...because I need you."

Kennedy nodded and she instructed, "Put that on and listen up. We don't have much time and things are so much worse than you can even begin to imagine."

He took the vest, dropped the jacket, and strapped the vest on over his black t-shirt. He secured it like he knew what he was doing and secured his jacket back over it, "...zombies right? That's what this is. It's zombies."

Jill nodded, impressed at his ability to just roll with it, "Yeah..and it's not just them."

She told him about the fall of Raccoon City. She told him about Umbrella. She told him about viruses and monsters and things that couldn't possibly be. He listened, he watched her with calm intelligence, and he just..._believed. _She had to admit, rookie or not, he was the first person she'd seen in a long time that just reacted like a person with training and patience and not abject mortal fear.

She paused as she considered things and finally asked, "...it was SWAT right? They hired you for SWAT?"

He nodded and returned, "I have heavy weapons and melee training. I tested higher on-"

Jill patted his shoulder, "Save the story for later, rookie, and understand one very important thing - anything other than a head shot is a waste of your time. Ok?"

He nodded. Jill scanned his face, "...are you going to be able to help me? I have people I need to evacuate here. I need all the help I can get."

Kennedy puffed up a little in a way she found endearing, "Absolutely. That's what I'm here for. I might be the last cop in this city, right? I'll do what I can."

Jill patted his arm again, "Good. Then follow me..."

She eased open the door as he murmured, "...I'm sorry about your friend."

Jill paused, she glanced over her shoulder. He looked sympathetic but not pitying. She thought they'd get along just fine. He was clearly a good man in a storm, and didn't seem afraid to face a horde of undead. She'd find out soon enough how tough he really was.

So, she answered, "...thank you. Stick close ok?"

They emerged into the hallway out the back side of the locker room. It was mostly turned into a barricade on one side of piled furnitures and chairs. They cut across the small hallway and Jill ducked out a shattered window. Leon followed her, considering things.

He'd started the day eating a breakfast burrito, and now he was here running from the undead. It was surreal. It was even more surreal that he was handling it as well as he was. He wanted to panic and freak out, but he got the feeling Jill Valentine wasn't a woman who let you fall apart on her.

So, he contained himself to panicking on the inside and kept on her six instead. They clomped over the cold steel fire escape and around the side of the building. Jill informed him, "When we hit the main alley, don't slow down. Move fast, efficiently, and without stopping. If we get separated, follow the street signs for Emmy's Diner. Behind the diner is a warehouse where you'll find the rest of the survivors. Wait there for me and keep them safe. If I'm not back within an hour, get them toward whatever road you came in on. There's a school bus behind the warehouse we'll use to make our escape. It's got food and water on it and ammo. I just needed this.." She lifted the grenade launcher in her hands, "...to blast down the barricade...but according to you...that's already gone."

Leon nodded and asked, "Anything I should look out for besides masses of drooling undead?"

Jill glanced at him and shook her head with a small smile, "That's not enough? Actually...yeah...I just saw a mo-"

"STARRRZZZZZZ..."

She shoved him against the wall so hard it made him grunt. Her hand slapped over his mouth. She pinned them to the wall and slid into the shadow of a corner, heart pounding so hard it made him scared too. She hissed, "..._that...that thing..._it's hunting me...I think-It has to be hunting me...I don't know why...I can't-oh god..."

It wasn't hunting her though.

Not now.

Not yet.

In the courtyard, limping wildly toward the RPD, Brad Vickers was trying to out run his own demise.

He shouted, "HELLO!? Is anyone there!? Let me in! _Omigawd..._let me in! Please!"

She'd wondered if anyone was alive. She'd thought about so many people, and never once thought of Brad. Brad was a coward. He was a douchebag. He was the worst of them. How he ever made it into S.T.A.R.S. was a mystery. She had no doubt Wesker had hired him specifically because he was a coward and would leave them in the woods. True to form, he'd taken off and abandoned them to their own demise.

Apparently, karma was about to turn her wheel on Brad.

Leon started to push forward to help and Jill pinned him to the wall, shaking her head. The rage on his face made her hiss, "...you wanna die too?! I fought a thing like that...we can't win...we can't help him...we're up here...our _only _chance is to run...do you think I like knowing it? I need your help. I have children waiting for me back there...kids..._please..."_

Brad screamed. They both glanced down into the courtyard to find him lifted into the air by the thing that was stalking them. It held him to eye level with a fist wrapped around his throat. He gagged, legs kicking, and the smell of urine filled the cold, clear air. The rumble of thunder that echoed over the valley was the perfect backdrop to his humiliation.

Brad Vickers was going to die pissing himself.

The thing jerked on his body and Brad squealed like a pig as a tentacle snaked up his belly like a tongue. He tried to fight back. He kicked it once in the shoulder. For the offense, the thing thrust that tentacle right into his open and screaming mouth. Like a blowjob no one ever wanted to give, it crammed its offensive tentacle down that unwanting throat and out the back of his neck. A pop, a splatter of blood, and the skin split to show the tentacle whipping wildly with Vicker's blood all over it.

The purple was red and pretty somehow, looking like rubies on lavender. It shook his body in the air like a dog with a bone and threw him away. The body hit the door of the RPD station and slid down, neck broken, eyes glassy, body still. The thing stood above him, head tilted, looking - she had no doubt- for her. It listened. She closed her eyes as if that would help.

After a long moment, a hand lifted to tug hers off his mouth and Leon whispered, "...it's gone."

Jill opened her eyes. From inches away, he soothed, "...it's gone...are you ok?"

Jill shook her head: no. She backed off and felt a shiver of panic and horror. She felt ill for a moment, leaning a hand on the wall as nausea gripped her. That's what her death looked like. She was going to die choking on a tentacle. Her gaze couldn't leave Brad.

Not like she had.

She'd left Brad to die.

She'd left Brad to die.

She'd left her team behind to die. Just. Like. Brad.

Jill covered her face with her other hand and felt the well of tears. Her mind shouted: _NO!_ She wouldn't. Not yet. Not now. Not over fucking Brad Vickers. No. She wouldn't lose her resolve over that bastard.

He was the worst of them.

He'd left them to die.

The guilt tasted like vomit in her mouth as she hurried toward the ladder to the ground. The rookie kept pace, doing no more and no less than she'd asked. When they hurried through the cold streets, he finally asked, "...you were friends?"

Jill stopped. She leaned on a wall. He leaned with her, poking his head around to scout the street outside of the diner. It was empty. Jill hefted the launcher and told him, "...no...but-"

Leon glanced at the launcher. He glanced back at her face. She whispered, "...I had this...I had _this_...why didn't I try to help him? Why? I stood there. I made you stand there. I didn't even attempt to use this goddamn thing...why? What kind of coward does that?"

They held gazes until Leon finally answered, "A human one. You think I'd have jumped down there to help?"

She eyed him. He held her gaze. After a moment, she murmured, "...I kinda get the feeling you would have, yeah."

He shook his head, "Maybe, but the kids. You were adamant about the kids, Jill. It's Jill, right?"

She nodded. "Yeah. Jill Valentine."

"I remember. I'm just using your name in a negotiator technique made to talk jumpers down off the roof."

The moment held. She arched her brows. After a moment, a sharp burst of a laugh wheezed out of her lungs, "...you head shrinking me?"

He squeezed her arm, "...what did you tell me back there? Dead, no one can help these kids, right? I'm sorry about your friend. Let's not die from the guilt of it. We can't help anyone else if we're dead."

She had a second to remember what Marvin had said about this recruit - best he'd seen in years. He'd passed the hostage portion of training with the highest scores in the last decade. He was calm, centered, and really good under pressure. He just didn't panic. She drew from that cool steely demeanor and remarked, "...right...thank you."

She pushed away from the wall and told him, "...stay close, Kennedy..."

As they started toward the diner she added, quietly, "I'm sorry as hell you're here...but I'm kinda glad you are too."

He nodded and sealed his fate as he answered, "...I can help here. This is what I signed on to do, right? Maybe it's not ideal...but I can help. So, let's see if we can get out of this alive with as many people as possible."

He was a good kid - brave, bold, and determined. She wondered if he'd last the night. She'd lost so many already. She'd become cold in a way that scared her. She'd just let Brad die back there...and only felt guilt because she was glad it was him instead of her.

Was this what a pure hearted rookie had to look forward to?

Time would tell. If that thing came after her, she'd find out how good the grenades worked on it. She had a feeling it was stalking her even as they ran. It was, apparently, going to make sure she died like Brad and all the S.T.A.R.S. before her. She'd never had someone whose only purpose was to hate her. She'd never had a bitter enemy.

She'd never had a nemesis.

She didn't have the time to stop and worry about it. Not now, when so many waited for her help. For now, they had a city in need of saving and no freedom to stop and feel sorry for those they couldn't.


	2. Dawn2

**Gone by Dawn**

* * *

**Part One:**

**-Downfall-**

* * *

**Chapter 2: Hail Mary**

* * *

**Raccoon City**

* * *

The thunder grumbled mutinously as they surged against the silence toward the warehouse. Jill, lost in a sea of regret and remorse, kept imagining the look on Chris' face when she told him she'd let Brad die pissing himself. No help. No bravery. Just cowardice.

She'd stood there while he'd been murdered in cold blood.

Was the rookie right? Was the circumstance worth the cost?

The moment they emerged into the warmth of the warehouse and she saw Olivia, Jill knew she was right. She'd done the right thing. Olivia, Charles, and Linnie were three children with no one else in the world to watch out for them. She'd found them huddled in an attic at Emmy's diner. They'd been hiding out there, eating canned foods, and waiting for help. Olivia, almost twelve, had been smart enough to secure the attic door against the undead.

They'd smeared old blood on the ladder leading up to the hideout, signaling death to anything that tracked by smell. It was clever, it was calculated, and it was worth keeping this girl alive. She had smarts that needed to be rewarded with a shot at life. The other children gathered were a small class of kids left from a field trip to the zoo. They lost friends there and were mostly terrified, but they were tough and holding it together.

Jill crouched to hug Olivia and the little girl chattered about what they'd done while she was gone. Charles poked a finger at Leon's gun and made the rookie wink at him. Linnie took three seconds to decide to sandwich herself to his leg and made him smile.

This, he thought, was what she was trying to protect. Could he really hold it against her that she'd left a man behind for this? It was entirely possible these people had no hope without her. She was their lighthouse, desperately trying to weather the storm and bring them home.

Leon ruffled the hair on the little girl and when she lifted her hands, he hiked her up on his hip. A quick study told him she was barely two years old. She thoughtfully touched the ends of his hair and he teased, "...like a pretty girl?"

She giggled and melted his heart.

He got it. He really did. Kids had no one but adults to save them. In this case, Jill Valentine was their messiah. They all looked at her like she just might know the path to heaven.

All in all, she had thirteen people in this warehouse that needed her help. She'd be damned if she left them all because of Brad Vickers. Maybe that made her a monster, she didn't know, but she'd be ok with the label if it meant they all got out of this city alive.

Sister Agnus, one of the nuns hiding with the children, hurried over to greet them. She cooed sweetly over Kennedy and treated Jill's wounds. Secure at the notion that no one was bitten, Agnes went back to attempting to keep the children quiet but entertained. She was young, still weeks fresh into her vows to serve God, and looking to prove herself. She'd lost sisters to the hordes, but was hanging on to the hope that God would save them.

Jill was fully aware God had left this city long ago.

Linnie let Leon set her down and ran to join her friends. He watched her go with an intelligence on his young face that Jill appreciated. "You did the right thing back there."

Surprised, Jill angled a look at him, "...did I?"

He gripped a hand on her forearm, squeezed, and answered, "...I'd have done the same. Looking at what you have here...I'd have done the same."

Jill's face tried to collapse. She flipped her hand over and squeezed his palm, reciting a plea, "Don't. Don't show me any empathy, rookie...I can't afford to fall apart."

He nodded, but he squeezed her hand with it anyway before he let go.

Softly, Leon inquired, "Anyone but kids and women?"

She gave him a sad look, "Just you, rookie. The rest of the men I'd found died...trying to be heroes."

He gave her a cool look and she added, "Apparently, there's still some chivalry left in the world. We had four men, but each one died protecting these children. I have to make their sacrifice matter. It has to matter."

He gave her a nod and his hand lifted, secured over her wrist, and squeezed in support. She took some kind of strength from that one gesture and turned toward the back doors. "Out here is the bus. I figure the best way out is the way you came in. Any chance you can drive this thing?"

She gestured out the window and Leon laughed, "...I think I'm more likely to wreck it, honestly. I flipped my Jeep racing against the horde and a trucker with a death wish back there. I'm not sure I'm the best option for a driver."

Quietly, one of the nuns remarked, "Sister Adaline is."

Surprised, Jill turned as the nun in question sighed, "I was the driver for our outings. I can handle the bus."

Impressed, Jill instructed, "Good. Gather what you can...we have to go..._now."_

There was no need to mention the thing stalking her. She was already fully aware what it meant. She couldn't flee this city - not now. Not knowing it was chasing her. She had to get them out, and then she had to stay to finish that thing. She was hoping Kennedy would be the person to get them safety. It was the least she could do for all of them.

As the bus crossed town, Jill told him, "When we get to the edge of the city, I'm going to expect you to get them the rest of the way to Wombat Junction."

He gave her a cool look and she finished, "Please...you know I can't run. I have to stop that thing. It's after me...you heard it call back there. You heard it. You know it's stalking S.T.A.R.S."

He tilted his head and she showed him the badge in her back pocket. His eyes flicked down and back to her face and she informed him, "...ye_ah. _Jill Valentine...rear defense, B & E, and demolitions - Special Tactics and Rescue Service."

His mouth twitched as Leon mused, "...ah...the master of unlocking...your legacy proceeds you."

She rolled her eyes and started to say something flippant when Sister Adaline shouted, "Oh my God!"

Praying it really _was _Jesus Christ walking on water, Jill turned sharply in her seat to glance in front of them...and there it was. The thing chasing her. The monster. The nemesis out of her worst nightmares.

It was just standing in the street watching them come.

Jill shouted, "Everyone get down! Adaline..._floor it._"

She did. She hit the gas. Jill lifted the grenade launcher and she warned, "MOVE! You stupid bastard!"

He lifted his gun and she beat him to the punch. The grenade hit him, he caught fire in a WHOOOOOSH of sound and pressure, and the bus barreled right over him. Thump. Thunk. Whump. Whomp. Sounds and sputtering. Everyone either whimpered or screamed.

Olivia shouted, "JILL! HE'S STILL COMING!"

Jill grabbed Adaline and told her, "...stop this fucking bus. I'm gonna get off...I want you to keep on driving. You hear me!? Don't you stop! FOR ANYTHING."

The bus squealed to a stop. Jill ran out of the doors while Olivia shouted for her to come back. She yelled, "I have to! It's just me he wants! He won't touch you if you _go now! Do what I say and go!"_

She hurried toward the fire that ate along the cars and the street. The grenade had blasted a fucking crater in the ground where it had struck. But the thing chasing her? It was walking through fire like it was impervious. It's scarred skin didn't burn. It's ugly face was still grinning around all those horrible teeth.

Grenades didn't kill it.

Would anything?

Jill instructed, "Adaline...GO!"

The bus roared away, Jill felt a flicker of real fear, and a voice shouted, "Go left and let it chase you!"

The idiot rookie had gotten off the bus while she wasn't looking.

Horrified, she shouted, "IDIOT! GET BACK TO THE BUS!"

"Shut up!" He pointed, "Go down that alley...now!"

She turned. She ran. What choice was there? The thing on fire turned toward her and lifted the gun as it walked. Jill grabbed a trashbin and threw herself behind it. The scatter of machine gun fire lit the metal with pops and squeals. The bin jerked and jumped. She half crawled, half crouched and ran toward the next turn in the street.

As she burst through the alley into the main road, she spun around with the grenade launcher. The thing on fire came out of the alley and she hit it again with a clunking thump of release from the launcher. The big round struck, the fire was instant, the world lit with smoke and stench. She watched it absorb the blow and half of its arm was simply obliterated. The heavy machine gun clomped on the ground with a clang.

The thing reached up and pulled its own arm off. A slurp, a pop, a crunch of bone - Jill gagged in horror as blood sprayed and sizzled in the fire around it. It tossed it's machine gun arm to the ground and what came from the hole was worse somehow. It was so much worse. It was tentacles. Like that thing that had grabbed Brad and impaled him, it whipped toward her. She scrambled back, fell on her butt, and tried to reload the launcher.

It ducked its head and just started running.

With a yelp, she flipped around and almost fell getting to her feet. The wings on her shoes gave her pure flight. She took off at a pace so fast that there was no time to do anything but run. Run run run run runrunrunrunrunrunrunrun.

It went through her head like one continuous sound.

She knew she'd tire. She had to tire. She had to tire eventually. She cut left through some cars and the tentacles simply lifted the vehicles and threw them away like they weren't tons of steel. Terrified, Jill ran for the gate to the playground attached the orphanage and the tentacle finally did its job. It looped around her ankle and jerked. She screamed, the grenade launcher went spinning over the ground, and she was jerked across the pavement trying wildly to grab anything to stop it.

It dangled her upside down as it lifted her, Jill grabbed for her knife, and as it turned her toward it - she thrust the damn knife right into his face. It went in the left eye, it popped and spilled fluid on its ugly burning cheek, and the thing roared in her face, "STARZZZZZZ!"

She jerked the knife clean and went for the other eye. It grabbed her by the face for the effort, made her shout in horror into its hand, and it just...threw her. It threw her by her face into a car. Her back hit with a heavy clang of metal and pain up her spine, Jill rolled and it grabbed her again. It lifted her by the throat, she kicked it in the face, and its tentacle snaked up her belly.

She was going to die like Brad.

Maybe it was no less than she deserved.

Jill shouted in rage and fear, "FUCK YOU!"

She gagged, choking on the hand around her throat, and the tentacle reached her face. It looped toward her mouth, Jill clamped her teeth shut, and there was a whistle. She jerked her head as a horn sounded.

She had a moment to think - _holy shi-_

And the car struck the nemesis. He threw Jill to the ground, he was tossed into the air over the battering ram of a cop car, she watched the rookie hit the gas and keep going and the damn thing was pinned between the wall and the car as he hit head on with the damn thing clinging to the hood. The sound was massive, the crunch and pop and shattering of glass and air bag deploying.

She watched the rookie fling himself out the door moments before impact. She watched the damage race in waves of fire and oily smoke up the wall of the big building that had made her attacker into an ugly sandwich - better a monster sandwich than a Jill one- and the rookie shot the damn thing in the face four times from the ground with that Magnum.

Its face was reduced to hamburger and fire.

It burbled. It gurgled. It went face down on the hood and didn't move again.

Jill, aching, limped toward him and offered a hand. Leon took it and she leveraged him up. Impressed, she whispered, "...I thought you'd run for the hills."

He laughed, shaking with adrenaline, "I thought about it...but I'm too big of a hero for that."

Jill nodded. She jerked on his vest to back him toward where she'd lost the launcher and lamented, "...thank the good fat lord for bravery."

Her hands gathered up the launcher. She turned toward the ticking car, loaded a fat round, and fired at the mess of monster and twisted metal. It struck, lighting up the night in a wavering orange glow. Jill stumbled a little from a sore hip and she whispered, "...is it over?"

They watched the bonfire of monster burn in the cold night.

The rain started, sizzling as it struck flame and made smoke. Leon put a hand under her elbow when Jill staggered again. "..let's look at your leg. How bad?"

She limped with him toward the gate into the orphanage. She let him support her weight a little as they moved into the building and found the first place to sit down with light for him to look. Wincing, she felt him lift her pants leg.

The knee was twisted and swollen, bloody, but not broken. He treated it with the First Aid spray she offered and used a shredded jacket from the coat rack beside them to wrap it. They were both silent, thinking of the thing that'd died out there in street. She wasn't sure how she knew it, but her gut told her it wasn't dead. It wouldn't stay down for long either.

Jill thought of Olivia and her laughter. Safe. She had to believe they were safe now, safe beyond the city...safe and sound. It was what motivated her to tell the rookie, "...you know that staying with me is suicide."

He lifted his eyes. She had that moment again of thinking he looked like a movie star and not like a cop. His voice was calm, "I didn't decide to become a cop because I was afraid to die, Jill. I decided to become a cop to protect and serve. I just did that. You need me...we both know I just proved that."

Jill held his gaze until she finally nodded. Her eyes shut as she took a sharp breath, "...so, now we figure out how to stop the damn thing. I'm not sure ho-"

There was a loud rustle and a shout. A clattering sound of battle brought them both to their feet. His bandage was well done. She felt the support of it as she whispered, "...someone's here."

He nodded and she advised, "High and low...circle out to the stairs and cover me, ok?"

Another nod.

There were definite benefits to an eager rookie. He wanted to help. She was about to find out how far he'd go. She eased open the door and heard a commotion on the second floor. A thump and a cry brought them out into the lobby of the orphanage.

Toys were scattered in boxes and bags. Tiny chairs were over turned and tables tossed with papers and crayons. It was easily avoided as they rounded to the stairs and cleared the upper balcony. Jill went up first, listening to the sounds of conflict.

A man shouted and a girl screamed, "NO! DON'T!"

It was enough being caution. They sped up their assault. Jill eased open the door at the main floor and Leon cleared above her, remarking softly, "Hallway clear."

She went in, hurrying toward the sounds of fighting. A man instructed, "Katherine...stop fighting me. LAY DOWN!"

"HELP!" Her shout echoed in the darkness, "PLEASE HELP ME!"

Jill eased open the cracked door at the end of the hallway. She peeked inside and froze. Horror seized around her throat and held it in a devil's grip. The man in the room splattered with blood was none other than the Chief of Police. She'd known, of course, that he was dirty...she didn't know he was depraved. The walls were lined with sheets stained red with splatter and gore.

He wore an apron like he might be butchering meat, but she got the feeling he was about to butcher the girl that was rounding the blood stained sterile steel table between them. She wore a filthy nightie in pale white. It barely covered her thighs and couldn't hide her pretty breasts that swayed nakedly beneath it.

Young, barely out of her teens, she was blonde and beautiful. After a moment, her face clicked as Jill whispered, "...the mayor's girl?!"

Katherine, the girl in question, swung the battle in her hand. It cracked against the side of Iron's fat, mustached face. He yelped in rage and backhanded her and sent the Mayor's daughter to her hands and knees to crawl like a victim away from him. She whimpered but kept trying to run.

Jill might have stopped, maybe, and yelled freeze at him, but he grabbed his crotch like a filthy pervert as he chased Katherine's retreating ass across the slick floor. Her struggling was turning him on. Jill knew how the story ended too - with Katherine on the wall of trophies behind the fat bastard who'd lived his life in Umbrella's pocket.

He picked up a hatchet like he'd hit the girl in the back and Jill kicked in the door. She shouted, "DROP IT!"

And the rookie?

He didn't bother. He drilled the Chief right in his fat chest. It threw Irons back against the wall with a grunt and a gurgle. Katherine ran toward them at stumble and the rookie grabbed her to sling her behind him. Irons tried to shove off the wall and Jill spit at him, "...more than a coward, you son of a bitch, a fucking monster like the people you served. You deserve so much more than this."

Jill shot him in the face while he gushed blood from his chest. He went over the table beside him and collapsed in a clatter of metal and fat to the ground. Katherine, gasping with sobs, whispered, "...how-ho-how did...you find me?"

Jill shook her head to answer and the roar of the thing that chased her silenced her response, "STARZZZ!"

Terrified, Jill hissed to the girl, "Get in the wardrobe...don't get out...don't blink or breathe until we're gone. Do you hear me? When we are, run toward the warehouse on the u-"

"No!" She grabbed Jill's arm, "The station..my boyfriend, Ben...Ben Bertlucci...he's being held there. I need to free him. I need to get to him."

Jill shook her head and the girl told her, "I'll go without you if you won't help me. I swear to god."

A terrified mess of a girl - bleeding, bruised, half naked, and sobbing slightly. She wanted to save her boyfriend. She was either a fool or a hero. Either way, Jill knew what they had to do.

She told Leon, "I'll lead it away."

When he started to protest, she told him, "Get to the parking lot of the RPD. It should be easy enough with Iron's access card. The cells are on B-2...Bertolucci is in the third one."

Surprised, his brows arched and she told him, "Yeah...I knew he was there. I had no key to force him out and he refused to come with me. So...I left him behind too. Let's rectify that now...you came here to help...so help her and me. Please?"

Out of time for him to admonish or forgive her, Jill shoved them into the wardrobe where Iron's kept his toys. Katherine whimpered and Jill hissed, "I will meet you there. If I don't..."

Leon shook his head, "...I'm coming back for you. If you don't...I'm coming back."

Touched, she nodded and instructed, "When it starts chasing me...run."

She shut the doors and hurried toward Iron's dead body. The wallet in his back pocket had the card key they needed. She raided it, poked it through the doors of the wardrobe and felt someone take it from her.

As she turned back, the clump and clomp of her nemesis became louder. He beckoned her in his oily tone, "STARZZZZZZZZ!"

She was about to test every bit of training she had. Her breath filtered out and she shouted, "I'll give you stars, you piece of shit!"

The door was thrown open and she hit him in the face with the grenade launcher. Fire whooshed, he staggered and Jill ran for the far door out of the room. She felt the walls light up as she ran. She heard the sounds of pursuit.

She prayed Kennedy was as good as he was proving to be.

The world burned around her as she ran until there was nothing but fire, fear, and the nemesis.


	3. Dawn3

**Gone by Dawn**

* * *

**Part One:**

**-Downfall-**

* * *

**Chapter 3: Gone Girl**

* * *

**Raccoon City**

* * *

The ladder was just down the corridor. The puff of her breath in the acrid and cloying smoke was still loud in her ears. Jill raced like she was running for the gold and there was no rest for the weary. She could hear her high school track coach shouting encouragement from the sidelines.

Jill cut a jagged left through the boiling hallway and felt like she had a good lead on her nemesis that seemed relentless in his pursuit.

It was an arrogant, stupid, and nearly detrimental assumption.

He punched clear through a burning wall that divided them. Jill went to her butt on the floor, backing up as he came for her, dripping fire and fury from his garbled face. She grabbed for the launcher, tried to roll over, and he caught her by the back of her head. She thought - _oh jesus chris-_

He threw her through the wall beside them. The drywall broke and rained around her, the world fractured in sound and pain, and Jill rolled as she hit the ground on her side. She lost the launcher, she lost her bravado, and fear turned her breathing ragged as she scrambled in pain to her feet. She staggered, she limped, she whimpered and ran for the ladder beside her. She grabbed the wrought iron and threw herself up as a stream of fire lit the ground where she'd stood moments before.

Not just a goddamn gun...a _goddamn flamethrower._

How the hell did she fight something like that!?

Her head throbbed as she reached the top, propelled by sheer will and adrenaline. She raced over the rooftop, eyeballing the distance to the next level down. She couldn't wait. The second she considered aiming for the fire escape, the goddamn monster exploded through the roof top to land in a shower of concrete and fear. Jill just...jumped. She soared, airborne for a handful of terrifying seconds, before she plummeted to the second story below. She angled her shoulder, rolled and skidded, and ripped up her arm in the process as she landed. Blood spilled wet and hot as she shoved to her feet and ran for it.

The minigun made a sputtering kick as it roared to life. She whimpered, feet flying, and the bullets tore up the ground behind her as she went. She reached the edge of the roof, a bullet grazed her neck on the left, and she didn't jump this time so much as simply fall over the edge. She tumbled, she fumbled for something to grasp, and caught the edge of a windowsill to dangle. The thing that wanted her dead roared, "STARZZZZ!"

And she knew it was only a matter of time before it simply aimed that gun over the edge of the roof to end her for good.

* * *

"Are you sure!?"

In his jacket, Katherine looked small somehow. She stood in the rain beside her boyfriend, a rather nerdy fellow named Bertolucci. The ponytailed love child of Jim Morrison and Buddy Holly encouraged, "Come with us man...come on...there's room."

There was. The squad car was big enough for all three of them. He could jump in there and drive off to safety. He'd freed Bertolucci from the cell when the reporter had seen his girlfriend waiting and ready. He was willing to take the story to the press and shed some light on the horror here.

He needed to live.

The world needed to know about Raccoon City.

The bad news was that Jill hadn't shown up.

She was still missing.

If he just left with them, what would become of her?

Was she already dead?

He had to know. He couldn't leave her. He just wasn't built that way.

So Leon backed up and told them, "Go...go on. Get out of here and don't look back. I have to find Jill."

Katherine nodded sadly, "...You're right. Go find her...good luck...and thank you."

They hurried toward the squad car. Bertolucci clicked the keys and they climbed in. Leon watched them roar off into the rain. It was on them now. They were on their own. He'd done all he could for them.

He turned back toward the orphanage and watched in horror as the whole building erupted in flame. He backed up, the rain slicking his face in the firelight, and he roared, "JILLLLL!"

He turned and was tackled to the ground before he could stop it. He came up swinging but the gun fire nearly took his face instead. Hunkering down, Jill gasped, "GO!"

They half squatted, half ran through the courtyard before them. Jill was limping badly on one side. She let him sling her arm over his shoulders and support her. It made them move faster.

She told him, in a shout over the storm, "I twisted my knee falling to the ground!"

She was singed in places like fire had touched her too close. Her beautiful face was black with soot and red with blood. She looked terrified, but determined. Leon slung her around the side of a building and she kicked from the hip to send the door flinging wide open. They ducked inside, finding themselves in a gun shop.

Leon sealed the door, tossing a shelf over it to hold it shut.

Jill went right for safe. She jerked it open, grabbed a shotgun from inside, and jacked a shell into it in a single smooth move. Leon caught the barrel as she turned it toward the door, wrenched it out of her hands, and shoved her sideways into the office there. She started to argue and he pushed her backward into the closet. Almost gently, he sealed the door and pinned her to the wall.

His mouth breathed heavily beside her ear. She gripped his back with one hand and the gun in her other. There was a ruckus from the front of the shop as her determined nemesis forced its way inside. She eyed the crack in the closet door, heart hammering.

She could see the front of the shop as it moved through.

Leon hunkered closer around her, a wall of vests and hunting jackets marring her clear shot through the crack in the door. He was hiding. He was hiding her. She'd tried to fight but Kennedy wanted to hide.

Why?

The nasty monster bathed in blood and black charred skin grumbled and beckoned her from the lobby of the shop, "Starzzzz..."

It sounded almost calm now.

It wasn't roaring for her blood...it was what? Wooing her? Did it think she'd just come out because it sounded softer? Could it be smart enough to think it could trick her into showing herself?

That spoke of a level of intelligence that scared her.

After a moment, it listened to something she couldn't hear. It paused, it paced a little, and it turned to leave the way it had come. She heard it's step increase as it started running. It was chasing someone. Who?

Chris?

Impossible. He wasn't in the city. She was the only S.T.A.R.S. member left in Raccoon. She was relatively sure of that. Not completely, but relatively.

When the silence was around them, she whispered, "...thank you."

He nodded. He leaned back and gripped her chin. With a _tsk tsk _sound he eased open the door to the closet and escorted her into the office. She perched on the edge of the desk, wincing with pain as she let him treat her arm and bind it with a part of a jacket. She replaced her damaged vest with a new one, securing a hunting jacket over the whole of it to protect against future flesh being ripped off while rolling.

They both outfitted in jackets and the chill of the night was suddenly cloaked in warmth.

While she loaded up an assault bag with rounds for the shotgun, Leon helped himself to an assault rifle on the wall. The ammo was scarce, raided by angry hands long before now, but there was enough he could assemble a few magazines. Armed and ready, they went through the shop and headed for the back exit.

As they reached for the door, a hammer dropping on a gun made them both freeze.

Leon turned with his hands up, stepping just a little in front of Jill like he'd shield her. Jill, amused but grateful for the gesture, already had her gun aimed at their attacker. She hesitated when she saw who it was.

Quietly, she urged, "Robert...it's me...Jill."

Robert Kendo, the shop owner, was a former marine turned avid gun salesman. He had once been in fine shape but let age and good food turn his belly to fat around the middle. His gray hair and mustache bobbled as he instructed, "Guns down...now."

Jill tried again, "Robert...we just want to go...we don't want any trouble."

"I said put my fucking guns down!" He shouted it.

Jill looked with horror at the front of the shop. It wasn't far enough away. It would come back if he didn't shut the hell up.

She hissed, "Shut up! Fool! We need them."

Leon shook his head and she fell silent as he encouraged, "Mr. Kendo? I'm Leon. I'm just trying to help here. I'm a cop...see?" He showed him the badge cutely clipped to his belt. Jill smirked. He really still thought he was a cop. It was sweet, if misguided. "I'm here to help. Can we help you? I know where to get a car to head toward the mountains."

Kendo lowered his weapon a touch and looked heart broken, "...it-it's too late. It's too late for me...for _us..._don't you understand? I just want you to go...leave my guns, ok? And go."

There was a quiet sound from the room behind him. A small voice whispered, "...who is it, Daddy?"

A little girl poked her head out of the door. She was young, maybe seven years old. She was adorable, with dark hair and big blue eyes. When Kendo waved his hand at her, she encouraged, "...you're not gonna shoot them, are you Daddy?"

Kendo made a sound of frustration and lowered his gun. "...no...goddamnit...please...my wife-" He shook his head, "...she's been bitten...we just-I can't leave her. I just need to protect her...maybe..." He made a sound of pain and remorse, "Maybe she'll survive the fever...ya know? Maybe?"

He sounded so desperate.

The little girl whispered, "...my mommy won't wake up."

Jesus.

Jill felt her heart wrench. Leon smiled at the little girl and told her, "...are you Amy?"

What?

Jill furrowed her brow. Her gaze tracked toward the office and the picture on the desk. She figured he was just the type of guy who had a photographic memory or something. How could he know her name otherwise?

The little girl nodded, "...my mommy is sick."

He nodded and put his hand out to her, "Maybe we can help her."

Amy reached for his hand and Kendo snapped, "No! No goddamnit! Get out of here and just leave us alone!"

He shoved the little girl back from the door. Jill surged forward and Leon stopped her with a hand on her shoulder. He nodded, gaze flickering, "Mr. Kendo...we'll go. We'll go away...but think about your girl. If your wife...turns...she might hurt her. You don't want that to happen. Let us help...please."

Kendo hesitated. He considered it and finally nodded. He lifted his gun on Jill. "Amy...stay here with us...you...g-go. Just go in there and...just go..."

Go in there and finish his wife off.

Jill waited. Amy stood beside her father with her head bowed. She sniffled. She wiped at her eyes with her hands. She whispered, "...my mommy is dying."

Jill crouched down. The little girl moved over and wrapped her arms around the other woman. They hugged as Jill soothed, "...she is...your mommy is dying...I'm so sorry."

There was a moment of silence. Kendo prayed quietly, "..._Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me..."_

The muffled shot was still heard where they stood. The little girl jumped in her arms. Kendo whimpered sadly. He covered his face with his hands and whispered, "..._Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life: and I will dwell in the house of the Lord for ever."_

Leon emerged from the room without a word.

Jill, softly, encouraged, "Robert...you should come with us. We can help you get out of the city."

Nervous about it, Jill kept glancing to the front of the shop. She gave Leon a long look and remarked, "The rookie came in through the mountain pass...it's not blocked anymore. God knows why...but you can get out that way..."

Amy sniffled and plucked at the soft teddy bear sandwiched between her and Jill, "...if we stay with mommy...we'll die too."

Not a question. A statement. A little girl growing up too fast in a necropolis without hope. She needed out, now, if she ever wanted a shot at a normal life again. Jill waited until Kendo lowered his hands and nodded.

Leon suggested, "I know this is hard...but we should go - now."

He was aware, like Jill was, that they weren't the best company with the thing chasing her. They needed to get these grieving people to safety. As it turned out, Kendo moved fast.

He gathered his daughter and didn't stop. They cut across town quickly, Robert Kendo making a fairly decent back up gun. He picked off the undead without batting an eye. His wife's death hung over them all like a shadow.

When they reached a workable vehicle near the clock tower, Jill hotwired it and impressed Leon who stood to one side keeping guard. She gestured and the girl climbed in the back seat. Kendo took the wheel and remarked, not looking at either of them but straight ahead at the road, "...thank you..Laura...she'd have wanted it to be quick like that. She-I..." He shook his head and finished, "...thank you."

Amy, in the back seat, told them, "...my mommy is in heaven now..."

Jesus.

If Jesus was real, Jill thought wildly, he wasn't in this city.

Amy turned her gaze to Leon and informed him, "...you were her shepherd...you made sure she made it there...she won't forget that."

Leon nodded, jaw tense.

The car revved, Kendo gave one more nod, and they shot off like a bullet toward the far road. He weaved expertly between downed cars and road blockage. After a moment, the crackle of fire and the cool breeze was all that was left behind.

Jill glanced behind her at Kennedy. He was watching the car head off toward the mountains. She breached the silence and told him, "...you did the right thing."

He said nothing.

She laid a hand on his forearm and his gaze shifted to her. She nodded, "...you did the right thing here, Leon. She was already dead."

He shook his head. His jaw flinched and he grumbled, gruffly, "...she wasn't. She was dying...she was burning up...she wasn't dead yet...but she is now. I made damn sure of that."

He turned away and Jill gripped his wrist. Hesitating, he finally turned his head back to her as she intoned, "...don't do that. Don't. You saved her in the only way you could. You made sure she died human...you see what I see long enough...you figure out sometimes that's the only thing left we can do."

They held gazes. After a long stare, he finally nodded. She nodded back.

He started to say something else and his gaze shifted over her shoulder. He grabbed for her, slinging her to the side, and his body jerked, jerked, jerked. It did that, she thought as the world slowed down and she tumbled to the ground on her hands and knees where he tossed her.

The human body jerked like that when it was taking gun fire.

The vest on his body would save him.

The vest on his body would save him.

The vest on his body _had _to save him.

She grabbed for him as he fell backward. She pulled him with her toward the cover of a car close by. Bullets thunked and clunked and threw metal. Her attacker? Not exactly. Someone shouted in Russian.

She froze, her ears tuned in. After a second, another voice roared, "HE WAS HUMAN! YOU FUCKING FOOL! Didn't you see them!? They weren't monsters!"

Jill grabbed for Leon's jacket and ripped it open. He was pale and panting, but the vest had done it's job. He was unharmed, if a little bruised. Jill's hands cupped his face. She blew out a hard breath and shook her head at him.

He jerked a shoulder in a shrug. Jill tugged the shotgun up and called out, "I'm armed! He's armed! We're not looking for trouble! Turn around and get the fuck outta here!"

There was a quiet conversation and a voice called, laced with a latin accent, "We're not here to hurt you! He was overzealous, ya know? Thank god you are alright! He wounded?"

"...no." Jill eased around the edge of the car to sight down the gun. She saw the bobble of heads over the rise. They were in cover too. Good. She didn't want an accidental shoot out to start. "We're trying to escape the city."

Actually, they were trying to stop the thing chasing her. She needed a goddamn bomb or something to do that. Her brain was trying to find anything that would guarantee it's destruction.

She kept picturing the tank outside of the National Guard Museum. Was it operational? Was it overkill?

Did it really matter?

If she could get it to run, she was going to blow that bastard sky high.

The man shouted in fear. Jill jerked when she saw the thing in question come over the rise. They just started unloading on it. A rain of bullets from all those men. After a moment, she was frozen in horror as the slaughter began.

The nemesis opened fire. He burned, he blew them apart, he bisected limbs and whipped them with tentacles. He took bullets and roared. She should yell at them to stop. She should let it chase her. She should offer herself up to bait it away again.

She started to rise and Leon grabbed her to him. He put a hand over her mouth and shook his head. She gave him horrified eyes and he grunted, "...look at their goddamn body armor."

She leaned around the car and squinted: U.B.C.S. - Umbrella Biohazard Countermeasure Service?

Her teeth flashed in a sneer, "..._Umbrella."_

She ignored the fight as she gestured with her head. They crouched and ran for it while the screaming peppered the sky. Umbrella fighting Umbrella...a travesty of its own making. The guilt over the dying men chased her like the nemesis into the night.

Jill ran for the far side of the street and apparently, battle or not, the nemesis didn't give a shit about the men anymore trying to kill it. It whipped a tentacle. It tossed a car at her like it weighed nothing.

She went flat, the world narrowed down to avoiding that damn carcass of metal, and another one grabbed her ankle. Leon shouted, he started firing. The men fired on it. She turned around to blast it with the shotgun as it jerked her along the ground like it was reeling in a fish.

It lost half its face and it didn't even care.

When Jill shot it again, it finally had enough. It thrust one of those tentacles right through her goddamn shoulder. It went in, she screamed high and loud in pain, and it ripped free in a swirl of blood. She lost the gun in the rush of pain.

It lifted her off the ground and someone shouted, "Hey, _hijo de la chingada, _suck on this!"

There was a whoosh and an RPG came for the thing trying to kill her. It threw her up and away and Jill spiraled through the air. There was a clatter of commotion...something exploded in a burst of fire and screaming metal. She crawled over the ground as she bled everywhere.

Leon grabbed her up into his arms and soothed, voice frightened, "...holy shit...I've got you..."

She swirled with pain in a dark void and a voice demanded, "Come with us..._come on..._it's safe this way...it's safe..."

_DON'T LISTEN..._her brain shouted...her body jerked in pain and a seizure. Leon shouted in fear and dark, dark, dark shroud surrounded her in a final blanket of death.


	4. Dawn4

**Gone by Dawn**

* * *

**Part One:**

**-Downfall-**

* * *

**Chapter 4: Hail Mary**

* * *

**Raccoon City**

* * *

_The swirling warmth lulled, it lured, and it let her know she wasn't alone. Inside the cocoon of unconscious peace, there was no fire, no death, no darkness or destruction. Jill floated, feeling the pull of a kind of perfect release._

_She prayed she never awoke._

* * *

The rain pounded and drowned out the pursuit of boots on pavement. Together, the rookie and the mercenary cut across the courtyard of the Apple Inn toward Raccoon General Hospital. Leon was still trying to figure out why the mercenary had agreed to going after the promise of a vaccine.

When he'd offered the option over Jill's burning body, Leon had stood in surprise as he invited, "I'll go with you. It's gotta be there. The files from the courthouse...they can't be wrong. Why would they be? Somebody was working on a vaccine for this damn disease...if there's any hope...it's in that hospital."

Leon, feeling the thrill of the possibility of saving Jill, inquired, "Why help us? You don't even know us...you're, literally, working for the enemy."

Carlos Oliveira shifted uncomfortably. A handsome man with a shock of unruly hair over a copper toned complexion, he seemed the most reasonable of the Umbrella Biohazard Countermeasures Service. He seemed remorseful for what had become of the city they'd been sent to "save". He remarked, "I'm just a grunt...I didn't know, neither did the rest of us, who started this shit. They sent us to clean up the mess. You think I'm high enough up to have any say in the cause of it? I'm here. It's done. I can't save the dead, but I can try like hell to save the living. This girl is S.T.A.R.S. right? She stayed behind when the rest of them fled. She stayed to help...that kind of bravery deserves nothing but the same."

Impressed, Leon nodded. He agreed, wholeheartedly, and finally allowed, "...ok. If there's any chance at all of saving her...I'll need all the help I can get."

So, they were running through the night toward the hospital. The schematics that Carlos had pulled on his Palm Pilot had shown the lab to be located on the B-1 basement level. It made sense, given that most of the volatile vaccines would need to be kept at cool temperatures. They needed to get in, get the vaccine, and get back to Jill as fast as possible. She was being guarded by Mikhail and another of Carlos' team. They seemed eager to help as well, looking ashamed at the concept of working for a company that had created such chaos.

They had to pick their way through the swarming parking lot of the hospital carefully and quietly. They'd have made it, cleanly, but Jill's erstwhile monster made his appearance as they were slinking between cars to avoid detection. He roared, he swung his rams and knocked aside the undead in droves. They moaned and milled about, stupidly and sadly, being kicked or thrown aside as he the monster came for the two men trying to save the woman he'd been stalking all night.

Carlos cut through a small opening of two cars and shouted, "Go! Go, god damnit! Get in there and do this...I got this."

He hurried out into the swarming undead, bellowing, "HERE! You stupid sack of shit! I got yer fuckin stars right here!"

The Nemesis turned it's attention toward him as he started to fire. The dead swirled around him as Carlos ran into the open and started drawing attention to himself. Leon, with no other choice, hurried through the shadows toward the hospital. He eased into the vestibule toward the main lobby as the fighting filled the air where he'd been.

Carlos had no chance. He had no hope. He was going to die playing distraction. It was sad somehow, but Leon understood the impulse. He'd have done the same if Jill wasn't counting on him.

Leon hurried into the dark hospital, guided by flickering red emergency lights. The lobby was a mess, scattered chairs and tossed papers covering the ground from a ransacking of people fleeing there for safety. Bodies littered the floor, some torn to pieces, some still human with bloody throats and bellies. Leon gagged at the smell, hurrying through the flickering shadows for the stairs.

He bypassed the elevator, aware that there was no way it was going to be working with the power on emergency supply.

The door opened and he lost his footing as three zombies crowded the opening, shoving and slobbering for blood. He went to his butt, scuttling backward toward safety, his gun came up and a hand on the floor grabbed for his ankle. He kicked at it, a zombie lunged for his ankle, and Leon shot it the head from close range. A splatter of gore accompanied a pair of hands grabbing for his vest from behind. He shouted, swung an elbow to clobber the attacker in the face, and the other one lunged into his side. He struggled, shouting, and fired from the hip to blow apart a belly of one of them, but the second got its teeth into his forearm and clamped on.

Just like that, he was bitten.

Horror guided him to flights of sheer fury. He kicked and sent the one munching on his arm backward as he blasted apart its face and turned to pick off the third one. He might have been ok but the lobby was rapidly filling the undead called from the parking lot to the sounds of battle. Leon dodged hands and mouths and felt fetid breath as he ran for the stairs, his shoulder struck the door and he barreled through until a hand grabbed a tuft of his tousled locks and tried to rip him back into the fray he'd left behind.

He shouted, terrified, and a gun went off from the base of the stairs. The zombie was blasted backward, Leon grabbed the door to jerk it shut and seal the dead on the other side, and he crumpled against the wall in the dark with his gun raised on the shooter. A pretty woman in red stood at the base of the stairwell illuminated in muted blue light. She tilted her head and mused, "...cop?" Her gaze turned beside her, "You aware there were any cops left in his city?"

A small framed female joined the woman in red. She had short dark hair and big blue eyes. She shook her head and returned, "...no. I thought the entire RPD perished in the stand off."

Leon sighted at them both and demanded, "Identify yourselves...now."

The woman in red laughed with ire, "Come on, handsome. I just saved your ungrateful life. Stop grandstanding and get down here...you're about the repay the favor."

As much as he was trained to resist it, the urge to kill her was paramount in a way he couldn't describe. He wasn't sure what instinct it was that flashed "bad news" around her beautiful face in warning lights as bright as the blue that bathed her, but he barely resisted the urge to pull the trigger. He lowered the gun and the small one beside the other invited, "There ya go...come on...you're wounded..let me help."

With little choice, he did. Her name was Rebecca Chambers - she was happy to tell him her story while she tended his wounds. She'd lost teammates in the wounds when the world had fallen apart a few months prior. She'd spent the time in between trying to find a vaccine for the virus that was currently killing everyone it touched. She informed him, "I knew one was being developed here...I knew there was some hope of getting it when the world went to shit. I-I have a friend who needs it. I have to go after it."

Quietly, he told her, "I do too. I need it. You know how to administer it if we get it?"

Rebecca nodded, looking dedicated, "It needs to be in the jugular for immediate release. I need-the thing-the man who was chasing you...he was my friend once."

Surprised, Leon arched his brows, "...he's the reason the friend I'm with needs the vaccine. He...his tentacles..." He trailed off, hating the crushed look on her face.

But the girl circled her resolve and answered, "...he's not himself. He- I can help him. I can. He helped me once...I can help him."

She sounded so desperate for that to be true that he didn't argue.

The monster, she told him, had once been Billy Coen - a former marine who'd survived betrayal of his own men to be falsely imprisoned and turned around to help her survive the destruction of the mansion and the worst night of her life. She'd lost him in the woods and assumed he'd gone on to safety, but he'd never roundezvoused with her at their drop site. She knew, when he didn't show, that something terrible had happened to him.

With a quiet laugh, the woman in red wondered, "...so you assume he's become a big nasty monster? How can you even be sure?"

The woman in red was named Ada Wong. She had a boyfriend who worked in the hospital lab, she said, and she was trying like hell to make sure he was alive. She claimed to be F.B.I. and was dressed like she'd been out dancing instead of investigating anything. She assuaged curiosity by telling them she'd been doing just that, at a fundraiser for the Bureau, when things had fallen apart.

In the silence, Rebecca finally told them, "Billy had a distinctive tribal tattoo on his arm...the monster? It has the same one...it's-above that gun...I saw it...when it came after me the first time...I saw it. I had to be sure, so I let it grab me."

Horrified, Leon shook his head, "It could have killed you!"

She shook her head, eyes sparkling with tears, "It didn't! _He didn't! _Don't you understand? He dropped me. He left. He didn't hurt me! Billy is still in there!"

It did seem shocking that he wouldn't have killed her when he had her at his mercy. The monster did exhibit occasional flashes of human intellect. Was it possible to save it? What about mutation? Even if "Billy" was still in there...would he want to be saved?

Not wanting to break her heart, Leon agreed to help them. He needed all the help he could get anyway. When Ada offered to kill him because of the bite on his arm, they stood there staring down the barrels of their guns at each other until Rebecca soothed, "...he should have started to get feverish by now."

Surprised, they both glanced at her. She nodded and remarked, "The rate of infection is fast in this thing. He should have started to turn...he's fine."

The silence dragged out until Ada laughed, voice laced with something eerily liked excitement, "...he's fucking _immune."_

Rebecca nodded, patting Leon's wrist until he lowered his gun. "Yes. I believe so."

Immune?

Leon shook his head, "How is that even possible?"

Rebecca told him, "Something like one percent of any population is naturally immune to any pathogen...Officer Kennedy...you're in that one percent."

He shook his head again, "It's just Leon. What does that mean? I can get bitten a thousand times and...nothing?"

Rebecca nodded. Ada was staring at him like he'd just done something interesting. He was thinking about how it might help Jill that he was immune. Did it? Could it? What good was it if it didn't help anyone else?

They trekked together through the hospital levels to the lab. It was easy to move quickly and quietly. Ada was a crack shot, giving credence to having firearms training which she would have gotten in the FBI, and didn't let them get snuck up on either. She was aware, in a way that was admirable, of their surroundings to the point of showing real aptitude for survival.

They were in the lab, with Rebecca hitting keys and working quickly, when something flickered on her belt in the low lights. Leon stopped and stared and remarked, "...S.T.A.R.S.?!"

She was. She had to be. That explained why the thing had stalked her and attempted to kill her. She was the same as Jill, the same as the dead Brad Vickers. She was one of the elite former RPD.

This girl?

This...child?

It seemed impossible.

So, Leon tested her, "...do you know Jill Valentine?"

Rebecca froze. She turned from the machine that was beeping and swirling, the mechanical arm rotating and grabbing compounds and chemicals to create the vaccine. She stared at him until she finally spoke, "...do _you_ know Jill Valentine?"

He laughed.

Ada smirked.

He told them, "She's in the clock tower being guarded. She's who needs this."

Rebecca nodded, she spun around to continue working. "It's almost done. There's just enough for two."

Ada flinched but shook her head, "So much for the idea of inoculating ourselves huh?"

Rebecca glanced at her, "...I'm sorry. I have to try...for Billy."

Ada said nothing.

When the samples were in her possession, they hurried toward the emergency exit. It opened to the the back alley away from the flooded parking lot. They cut through the night, hurrying into the rain and the flickering fire of a burning city.

Rebecca called above the din, "Billy will try to find us for sure if Jill and I are together. Let's hurry!"

Leon kept thinking about what was surely the long dead Carlos. He'd died bravely, hopefully, and not suffering the infection they'd all been trying to avoid. He kept thinking of himself, immune, and alive while the rest of the people he'd come to know died of the virus. It was tragic. It was terrifying. He was going to make sure it didn't go down that way.

They hurried toward the clock tower, rushing over the the damp ground - and the click of a hammer dropping made them both pause. Ada had her gun on them. Rebecca lifted her hands and the FBI agent addressed her, "Sorry, sweetie, but this is the end of our friendship. A sad way to end it, but I'm gonna need that sample in your pocket there.."

Rebecca jerked in horror, "...I need this...I need it for Billy."

Ada shook her head, "...Billy is a lost cause, honey. We both know it. Me, however? I'm not going out like that. I'll let you keep the one...treat your friend in there..." Ada gestured with her head, "...consider it a gift. Give me the other...now."

Rebecca tossed it to her, shaking in rage. Ada backed up and shrugged a little, "Just business...one day you'll get that...good luck."

She rushed away into the night. Rebecca slumped a little where she stood, whispering, "...no...no no no. Billy needs that! Oh, god...what-"

She turned on Leon. He was waiting for her to lift the gun on him and demand the sample he carried for Jill. She didn't lift the gun, but she offered, "...there-I need...that. I need it...but listen...listen...we can try another way to help Jill. I-I heard about a cure being developed at the University called Daylight...if we can get there...I can finish the synthesis...I can cure her...she'll still have the antibodies and the rest of it...but I can cure her..."

Leon shook his head, denying that, "She'll turn before we can do that. You know that. She doesn't have that long."

Rebecca, looking desperate, offered, "...what's your blood type?"

Brow furrowed, Leon returned, "...O-Negative...why?"

Rebecca nodded rapidly and pushed into the clocktower. To Leon's horror, the men guarding Jill were long gone. She was lying on the floor on her face, pinked with fever, and moaning. He grabbed her up and laid her on the cool altar, stroking her sweaty hair back.

Rebecca, looking at how pitiful she was, offered another solution, "...we can transfuse her."

Leon bathed some of the sweat from Jill from the bowl of cool water beside the altar. He was hoping holy water would purge her and save her. Stupid - but there it was. His gaze flicked to Rebecca, "...with what?"

Rebecca grabbed his arm and jerked up his sleeve, "...with your blood."

His brows winged up and she waved her hand, "...I'm a doctor...did you know? Youngest in a long time- Yale. I got my doctorate at sixteen. I know what I'm talking about here. If we transfuse, we can spare her from turning. We can't reverse it...but we can spare her from further decline. It'll keep her sustained until we get the cure...please..._please..._Billy only has one shot here...but Jill? I wouldn't risk her if I didn't think this would work."

Think.

Not _know._

Leon hesitated. Jill moaned pitifully.

Finally, he grabbed a chair from beside the altar and sat down. Rebecca hurried to open the medical kit she'd carried with her. She removed tubing and gauze and needles. He wasn't sure this wasn't a huge mistake for everyone.

But what if Billy could be saved?

Shouldn't they take that risk?

He waited, heart pounding, as Rebecca synced his arm to Jill's. She told him, "Relax...ok? Just a pint or two at the most. Your body will make that up in a day or less. Here..." Rebecca offered him electrolyte water from her pack as he sat.

Crazy.

It was all crazy.

It was a hail mary pass.

What if it worked? What if it didn't?

Would he hurt this little girl with him to save Jill with the cure already in her pocket? What was the difference between what she held and the thing called "Daylight?" Wasn't a vaccine meant to work BEFORE exposure?

What good could it do now?

Was it a vaccine?

So many questions. His gaze lingered on Jill's pink cheeks as she moaned and shivered on the altar. It was her only chance here. They had to take it. If he had to, he'd give her that thing in his pocket too.

He was sorry about Billy, he was, but there was no guarantee he could be brought back.

Jill, however, could be.

He'd do whatever it took to protect her. That's what it meant to serve and protect. Maybe the badge meant nothing anymore, but the damn vow still did. He'd made an oath to protect the innocent. He was going to uphold it.

Even if it cost him his life.

He kept his gaze on Jill as his blood rushed red and desperate into her body and prayed it was enough to save hers.


	5. Dawn5

**Gone by Dawn**

* * *

**Part One:**

**-Downfall-**

* * *

**Chapter 5: Resistance**

* * *

**Raccoon City**

* * *

It seemed that a moment of peace would find them talking about how Rebecca had come to be in the company of a betraying FBI agent. She treated Leon's arm wound while the transfusion occurred, talking softly to him as she moved, "I found her in the parking garage of the RPD. I was trying to find anything on the location of the vaccine and knew that Irons kept an office in the gun range where he might have stored information. She was fighting some of those...dog things?"

Leon nodded in understanding.

So, Rebecca continued, "I killed one trying to eat her face. She decided I was useful I guess. Being together seemed better than being alone. So...we teamed up."

After a moment, Rebecca sighed and suggested, "...I don't think she's really FBI...she seems..." She trailed off. Leon nodded again as if reading her mind. He patted the former medic's arm.

Rebecca sighed, "...and now Jill might pay the price of me trusting her."

"...don't do that. It's not your fault. She made sure you believed her for a reason. Did you come upon any one else while you were together?"

Rebecca nodded, dipping her cloth in the warm water to bathe his arm, "A couple of road crew guys and a highschool band member. We sent them out the mountain path because Ada swore it was unblocked...now I'm starting to wonder if it was a trap."

He soothed, softly, "There's still a chance she was FBI, Rebecca. There's the real possibility she just stole that vaccine for herself because she's afraid. Don't think the worst...it'll cause you to want to give up."

Rebecca smiled gently, "...you're a bit of a boy scout, aren't you? You never give up?"

He laughed, shrugging, "Why give up? There's always something worth fighting for."

A soft scoff drew their attention to the table. A pink faced Jill was watching them now, "...the sentiments of a fucking hero there, Bec..."

Rebecca gasped and ran toward her. She bathed the sweat off Jill's face and cooed, "...you're alive! You look good, Jill!"

Jill laughed derisively, "...you're a terrible liar, Bec...although I appreciate the effort. What are you doing here?"

Rebecca carefully checked the needle in her arm before answering, "Saving you, apparently...along with the help of the world's cutest boy scout over there."

Leon flushed, making him _somehow _cuter. "...cute is for bunnies and babies."

Jill chuckled, woozy and tired but at least she was _herself _again. "...it works on you too, rookie, don't kid yourself."

Rebecca mused, taping the needle against Jill's skin to hold it in place, "His face is quintessentially perfect - symmetrical features and the addition of that cleft chin...some cultures see that as a sign of virility."

Leon shook his head, embarrassed at the assessment, "Just a face...nothing special."

Jill wondered if he was being modest, or he was that unaware of what he looked like. After studying the pink cheeks on him, she was betting he was both. She laughed again and shook her head where she lay, "Right. Nothing special." She waited until he glanced at her and added, "...helluva hero though."

That worked. He was officially flushed. Clearing his throat, he looked away. Rebecca leaned down and murmured, "...adorable, right? Or has it been too long since I saw a man who wasn't rotting?"

Jill smiled softly, "...adorable. Dead useful too. Never seen better aim on a cop."

Rebecca's brows arched, "Even Chris?"

Jill considered that and responded, "...it's too close to call."

Impressed, Rebecca leaned up and removed the needle from Leon's arm. She did the same for Jill and wrapped the used supplies in a roll of gauze. As they continued to sit or lay, she instructed, "Don't get up until you have to...it's gonna take some time for the blood to start doing it's job. We need to head across town to the col-"

The roar of pursuit brought the nice peace to an end. "STARRZZZZ!"

Jill tried to roll off the table but was too weak. She was caught in Leon's lap instead and he held her, hand over her mouth. Rebecca whispered, "Billy!"

She gave Leon desperate eyes and he simply nodded, reached into his vest with his free hand and offered her the vaccine. She took it, grateful, and instructed, "Get her somewhere and hide...I will lead him away...pray to _god _this works. Jill - don't be brave, stupid, and wonderful and try to follow me. Do you hear me? Stay down, stay safe...and let the rookie do his damn job and protect you..."

Jill started to argue and Leon gathered her up instead, pinning her against him as he turned and took the stairs of the clock tower two at a time. He was dizzy from blood loss, but better than Jill who limply laid in his arms even as she struggled against her own weakness. He tucked them both into the office at the top of the stairs, securing the door and carefully setting Jill on the desk.

She weaved a little and he whispered, "It had the chance to kill her before and didn't. She's onto something here, I can _feel it. _Trust her. She saved us both...don't waste that gift."

Jill said nothing as Leon moved to the window of the office and peered down into the street below. Rebecca was racing away from the Nemesis, shouting and circling it in the burning street. It didn't hit her. It didn't hurt her. It chased her, roaring. It could have _killed her..._but it just pursued her instead.

He was starting to believe it was really Billy Coen.

When the quiet descended again, Leon speculated over his shoulder, "We'll give them a few minutes so you can get your sea legs back before we go after them. I don't want to leave her alone too long with that thing." He told Jill about what Rebecca speculated that the Nemesis was and who it had once been. She said nothing.

When he turned away from the window, she finally spoke, "...it killed Brad...why kill Brad but leave me alive?"

Leon offered, softly, "It's possible that what's left in the Nemesis recognizes you're a woman and wants to protect you."

Jill scoffed, "Great...a misogynistic monster. Perfect."

Leon laughed and patted her shoulder, "Better that then the alternative."

She quirked a brow and he quipped, "A feminist one."

They held gazes until she snorted and he chuckled. Why was it annoying to find out he was adorable _and _funny? She didn't want him to be funny. However, if it was a nice thing to break the tension for the first time in days. Her tired body appreciated the effort.

So, she rewarded it.

Jill slapped his ass as he walked toward the bathroom of the office. He jumped, eyes wide, and she teased, "There...feminism be damned. Good game."

He had the strangest urge to grab her and kiss her. It was amusing even as it was a relief. Apparently, under all the fear and the survival and the need to escape, there was still a man in a room with a beautiful woman. Sure - they were both filthy and sore and scared and smelly...but he still knew he liked her. He liked Jill. It was easy to, she was tough and determined and charming in her sheer dedication.

What had she called him? Adorable. She saw a younger rookie trying to be a hero. It was tough to explain he was just trying to do the right thing. He'd gotten into police work to make a difference. There was never a better time than now. Every life they saved mattered here. He wanted to make sure he saved as many as he could.

But he was still man enough to know he liked her looking at his ass in the process.

Leon leaned on the door, bracing a foot against it and crossing his arms on his chest to check the impulse to flirt with her. Most of his life, honestly, he'd been an abject failure with women. His "handsome face" only got him so far. He wasn't built for cooing and winking and charm, not like some guys were, so he'd relied on good old fashioned sense to get dates. He'd had them, his face was worth a few after all, but they didn't end well. Most of the time, his lack of enthusiasm over mundane things drove girls away. He simply didn't care about fashion or famous people or gossip.

Girls, it would seem, rarely wanted to talk politics or statistics of crime to a failing economy and coupled with poverty. He doubted Jill did either, although he wondered if she'd want to talk about the rate of success for hand to hand combat over firearms in standard groups of six men or less while attacking. Why did part of him think Jill knew all about hand to hand combat?

What he did know? Jill was the type who'd be happy to focus on what mattered most here. His face, her ass, and all the in between? That was for a better time and place.

Quietly, he told her, "Rebecca wants us to get to the university to try to find something called Daylight. Apparently, this transfusion was a temporary band-aid."

Jill nodded, "I figured although...why you? What's the catch?"

He started to answer and she caught sight of the gauze wrapped around his arm. It was pink where the blood from the bite had soaked through a little. Jill's eyes widened and she whispered, "...tell me that's a knife wound."

Leon said nothing.

The tension spiked and she hissed, "...you transfused me with dirty blood!?" She sprang off the desk like a woman who hadn't just nearly died. He caught her as she swung at him, slinging her away to stumble into the desk again.

He warned her, "-don't be stupid...wait a minute! I can explain!"

She came for him again, swaying, but alert. He grunted, "...Jill..._goddamnit..._wait!"

She hit him in the stomach. He caught her wrist and tugged it up behind her back which got him a spare elbow thrown at his face. With another grunt of effort, he lamented, "...women!"

The next few minutes proved she knew _plenty _about hand to hand combat. They grappled as she snarled, "...you son of a bitch! You got bit! You infected me!"

He caught her finally as she threw another kick at him. He let her land the slap to the side of his head to get control of her leg. He jerked her into him, spun her around and planted her against the wall on her face, pinning her arms behind her back as she snapped into her ear, "...listen, you stupid woman, even if that _was _true...you were already infected! Your nemesis did that, not me. And take a minute to think about what you just yelled...infected? I'm _still alive! _How could I be if I was infected? When you know the only other sample we had is with Rebecca? I'm not infected Jill!...I'm immune!"

She went still.

He held on to be sure she was finished attacking him.

After a moment, she soothed, "...I'm good...I _swear. _I won't came at you again...you can let go."

He did, stepping back. His hand itched to draw his weapon to protect himself, but that was over kill and would likely make a disaster. He didn't want to hurt her! He'd just busted his fucking ass saving her. He was going to credit her stupid leaps of logic with being ill and nearly dying.

Jill turned against the wall, hands up to show herself not a threat, "Sorry...sorry...shit...you're would you transfuse me if you were infected? Come to think of it...why would you transfuse me if you _weren't_?...you could have infected yourself Leon! What you did...brave...but stupid."

His eyes flew wide. "You calling me stupid for saving you?"

She shook her head. She covered her face with her hands, trying to find one coherent thought. She was scattered. The fever had rattled her brains. She needed to step back and see what he was saying here.

So, she lifted her head and told him, "...no...seriously...thank you. I can't thank you enough...I just-immune? How? How can you be immune to it?"

He shrugged, watching her now with a furrowed brow like she might attack him at any moment. She couldn't really blame him. "Rebecca says something like one percent of any population will be immune. It's basic survival of a species."

Jill nodded and moved to look out the window again. "As much as I want to hide out here, we need to get moving. I don't want to-" She trailed off, shaking her head, "...I can't turn into one of them."

She turned back to look at him, voice pleading but determined, "...if I start to turn-"

He waved that away.

She grabbed his good forearm and held it, urging, "If I start to turn, Leon...you finish me. That's the deal here. I'll keep going, but if the Daylight is a lost cause...if that thing comes for me again and I get hurt...finish me off. Promise me."

He said nothing.

She shook him a little, "Promise me, Leon."

"...I promise." He didn't like saying it.

She didn't like making him.

But it was something they needed clear. He was immune; she wasn't. If she turned, immune or not, she could kill him. It would be a _huge _waste of what could be life changing antibodies. He had to be kept alive.

Somehow, the rookie had just become the most valuable man in Raccoon City.

It was time to repay the favor and keep him alive. She needed to cure herself to do that. She had no hope at all for saving Billy Coen. Honestly, she thought Rebecca was living in fantasy land, but the girl scientist had always been the smartest person she knew. The book smarts came with_ zero_ street smarts. Rebecca was as cloistered as she was clever.

Jill knew about Coen and their time together on the Ecliptic Express before the mansion. She knew Coen had been framed and become a fugitive. She knew Rebecca had cut him loose in an attempt to spare him being persecuted.

She was sorry as hell to think he's bravery had cost him his life and resulted in him becoming nothing more than a weapon for another cruel commander. Sadly, that's how it was likely to end for him. She wasn't leaving this city without knowing that thing was dead.

If she had to go over Rebecca to get it done, she'd do that too. Coen wasn't "Billy" anymore. He was a monster, a predator, a pursuer meant to murder and destroy. He was her nemesis.

He was..._the _Nemesis. God _forbid _he take out Kennedy or something trying to kill S.T.A.R.S. Was it safer to separate from Leon to protect him? How much help could she possibly be staying beside him? _He _kept saving _her. _Was she really helping?

There was no time to consider it because they were suddenly no longer alone.

The door was quite literally blown off it's hinges. Leon and Jill were tossed backward by the force of the blast. The door smashed into the wall between them, shattering into shards of wood that scattered down like rain made of shrapnel. Leon grabbed for her like he'd put her behind him somehow and a voice instructed, "...it would be in your best interest not to move."

They stared up into faces obscured by masks. Six, maybe more, it was hard to tell with the world in smoke and searing flame and pain still making her weak and shaky. Jill grunted, "...and if we do? You think you can do anything to us that we haven't already survived?"

The masked leader sounded like Darth Vader as he answered, "We're about to find out."

There was a sound of a gun firing. Leon, the great and brave fool, dove over her to block her and she felt the blood splatter her chest from where he blocked the shot. Horrified, she grabbed him and whispered, "...why!?"

To which he simply answered, "...big hero, right?"

He slumped forward as the man beyond his shoulders told them, "It's a tranquilizer, you stupid boy...it never fails to surprise me how the young ones are so goddamn selfless."

Behind him, a female voice inquired, "Should we take them both?"

The masked man crouched and tilted his head at JIll. He asked, "...how have you survived this long?"

Like he really couldn't believe it.

Jill laughed, "...dumb luck?"

The man returned, "We're about to find out..."

She felt the tranquilizer dart hit her in the shoulder. She gripped Leon to her like she'd spare him the torture of it all. She slid down to the floor while the female voice offered, "...let's see if you're as tough as you think you are."

The lights flickered. The world shifted. The smell of smoke and steel was cloying.

She heard someone say, "...seems like a lot of work for a skinny girl and a buttchin boy."

She wanted to laugh.

She wanted to scream in defiance.

Instead, she slumped to the ground still clutching that buttchin boy who'd dove in front of her like some kind of hero.

* * *

The high pitched beeping woke her. She blinked, head pounding, heart thumping. The cold steel on her back was somehow soothing.

The screens on the wall flickered and offered a face obscured by shadow, "Ms. Valentine...you're awake. Perhaps you should take a moment to understand your position."

Jill blinked until her vision wasn't blurry and rolled her head on the cot where she lay to take in the visage of her captor. Sadly, all she could see was darkness and the whites of eyes. So, she taunted, "...why don't you come on down and give me the grab tour?"

The teeth flashed in the dark, "I think not. After all, the mastermind doesn't generally descend to convalesce with rat in the maze."

Right.

The rat in the maze.

That's what she was now.

Jill cleared her dry throat, "...what am I doing here?"

"What else? Surviving. You do that, I open the doors and let you out. All you have to do is survive for the next three hours. Seems easy right? I've put your boy wonder in the maze too. You find him, you can team up. The thing is...you're not alone in the maze. I'm going to try to kill you...with everything I have in my arsenal."

Jill laughed with anger now, staring at the ceiling as she mused, "Of course...because that's the only way you psychopaths know how to do things. It's not the first time some great bastard has tested my abilities you know."

"Oh, I know. That's why you're here. I know you can do. I need to know how badly you want to live. I need to test the best against the best. Welcome to Project Resistance."

Right.

Monsters made to kill her. Monsters making monsters to test her. Monsters in the street trying to eat her.

Her life was nothing but monsters.

She'd be damned if she went down that way.

So, she gave it her best tough guy speech, "...bring it on, you coward. I don't die that easily."

"Oh, I know that too. I'm hoping you're right. After all, my last three batches of recruits...we're all talk and no actions. The longest survival? Ninety four minutes. How long do you think you can last?"

Jill said nothing.

The voice finally finished, "...game on, Ms. Valentine...and good luck."

The door buzzed and slid up.

Jill rolled to her feet to find a shotgun lying right there on the table beside her. The doorway filled with undead. She grabbed the gun, she braced her feet, she taunted the horde like a hero, "...whose first!?"

And she got ready to start playing the game.


	6. Dawn6

**Gone by Dawn**

* * *

**Part One:**

**-Downfall-**

* * *

**Chapter 6: End of Watch**

* * *

**Raccoon City**

* * *

The long buzzing sound indicated it was time to fight for your life.

He groaned, eyes flickering, as the swirling red drew him from the dark to a state of awareness he wasn't craving. He wanted to stay in the dark. In the dark, a girl with Jill Valentine's face was trying to put her hand in his pants. In the red, he was lying on his side on the floor in the cold.

Groaning again, Leon forced his tired body up from the ground to a sitting position. The room was some semblance of a lab. It was tossed in the corners with papers and beakers over turned and spilling ooze onto the steel floor. A camera made a zooming noise and drew his gaze to it as a voice invited, "Good morning...you're late to the party it seems. Do try to wake up a little faster next time, would you? Your friends are already playing."

Leon grunted, his chest aching. He realized someone had bound his chest in a bandage and the swath of it was red with blood. Great. He'd forgotten his heroic dive to cover Jill. It had gotten him shot.

The voice informed him, "Mr. Kennedy...it would be in your best interest to work through the pain of it. You have two hours to stay alive and catch up to your friends. I suggest you get moving."

The doors buzzed. The doors opened...and a monster emerged through the narrow frame like Goliath come to defeat David. Leon braced, glancing around desperately for a weapon.

The thing that paced forward had never been a man. It was all swirling tentacles and stinking pus filled boils. It had rows and rows and rows of sharpened teeth that screamed with a high pitched sound so loud he cowered for a moment.

And then?

Then it just came for him like a bat outta hell.

Leon grabbed the steel cot beside him and shoved it, hearing it rattle and whine as the rusty wheels propelled it forward. It struck the monster broad side, he dove left and slid over the floor as tentacles whipped above his head, and his boot struck twice into the fat bloated body. It squealed, retreating, and Leon rolled to his feet to dart for the door.

He hit the hallway at full speed and the sound of pursuit became further and further away. The good news? He'd been running track since grade school. He was fast as fuck and pushed with gusts of adrenaline.

He swung around a corner at full tilt, racing against the blare of alarms and the squeal of a hungry plant that wanted to eat him. He rounded another corner and barreled right into a horde of zombies.

The horror nearly cost him his life.

He stumbled, teeth grazed his throat, hands grabbed for his arms. He shouted, spinning a roundhouse kick that was more desperation than any kind of skill. Bodies scattered as he tackled the one in front of him, sent it to the floor with a pitiful moan, and Leon smacked into the wall as he leaped over the fallen. They shambled, he scrambled to hold his feet, and he rolled against the wall into another doorway.

A room with a row of lockers and a desk with a computer. He raced for the other side, found the door locked, and moaned in fear. As he spun back, the tumbling horde was trying to get through the door for him. Terrified, Leon grabbed for the computer.

He ripped it from the wall, launched it like a dodgeball at the first through the door, and sent it stumbling backward into its friends. The next one through got the desk shoved at it like a battering ram. It hit, the horde was blocked at the door by the process of it, and Leon turned back to the locked door. He kicked it, roaring, "HELP! FOR FUCK'S SAKE! HELP!"

There was a buzz as the door whooshed up. He was face to face with the barrel of a gun in his. His hands flew up, "Don't shoot! I'm a human!"

And Jill gasped, "GET DOWN!"

He dropped, she fired over his head with great booms from the shotgun in her grip and he cowered on the floor like a child. Embarrassed, he finally responded as she shouted, "Get the fucking pistol on my back!"

Right.

Leon grabbed for it, jerking it from her pants, and rolled around to fire into the mess chasing them.

She grabbed his shirt to tug him backward through the door with her and someone shouted, "NOW!"

There was a beeping sound as the door slid shut to seal off the horde.

Leon didn't get the chance to feel the shame at cowering on the floor. He was jerked to his feet and Jill demanded, "Did you find a card key!?"

He shook his head, trying to fight off the shock of survival, "N-no..no? What?"

Jill shook her head too, turning back to announce, "Nothing. He didn't find it."

"Damnit." A pretty little asian girl shook her head, hoisting a backpack up on her shoulders, "Ok. So we just do what we can. You get anything useful?"

Leon held up his empty hands.

Sighing, a voice announced, "Goddamn...he's pretty, right? Or have I just been staring at ugly freaks for too long?"

He flushed. Jill told him quietly, "...I'm fucking glad you're alive. You ok?"

Softly, he smiled with apology, "...just my pride aching over here. Sorry I froze back there."

Jill furrowed her brow, "You didn't freeze. This place is a fucking nightmare." Her gaze traveled down to his soaked white shirt. It was pink in places with blood. Her hand touched the bright spot below his armpit, "Shit...I'm sorry. Is it bad?"

He denied that, "Nope. I can handle it. What's the plan here?"

The voice behind him informed them, "I got it!"

There was a beep and the doors beside them hummed as they slowly opened. The hangar they were in opened to a very welcome sight. It was outside. It was raining and flickering with lightning. It was the same horrible night they'd left behind, but it was freedom. Somehow, that was somehow encouraging.

They moved together in a small group of four into the open air.

Leon discovered the asian girl was named Yoko Suzuki. She was a college student studying virology at the university. The other voice was Alyssa Ashcroft, a reporter for the Metro News.

They had nothing in common save for one little thread - Yoko had interned at Umbrella over the summer at the lab that Jill had nearly in. Alyssa was the reporter who'd tried to break the story with Ben Bertolucci and been silenced. Umbrella was what held them together. Umbrella was trying to kill them for what they knew, and learn what they could as they died.

The rain washed away the sweat and the stink of fear. Leon watched the three women move with the same caution as he did. Smart, each in their own way. Alyssa was good with the computers, able to break through the coding on the doors they needed to open. Yoko was a whiz with plants. She told them all about combining certain ones for different healing purposes. Clearly, botany was a speciality of hers.

Jill and her lock picks were invaluable. And him? What good was he?

He found out when Jill caught him creating a make shift spear from a mop handle and a shard of glass from a broken window. She gave him a cool look, assessing him, and he remarked, "I know. It's not much, but it's better than nothing."

She nodded and returned, "Make something for Yoko too."

It was the closest thing to a compliment he was going to get for his improvisation.

With a small twitch of his lips, he nodded.

Jill and Alyssa were working on the gate in the rain, Jill clicking tumblers with her locks as Alyssa stood guard with the shotgun. Yoko was collecting plants from a patch of grass near the closest building. Alyssa, eyeing Leon, wandered, "...what's his story?"

Jill glanced at him and back at the lock, shrugging, "He's a rookie. Good kid. So far, he's saved my life more than once."

Alyssa nodded, "Nice lookin. You notice the way he looks at you?"

"Not really." Jill rose as the lock released, "Not sure it matters right now."

The blonde chuckled, "It all matters. Could be dead soon. It matters."

Jill started to answer and the most horrible sound in the world echoed in the night. "STARZZZZZZ!"

Her heart seized. Leon whipped around and tossed the spear in his hand. Yoko caught it with an oomph of sound. He shouted over the rain, "Jill!"

She was already running. She wasn't sure how she knew, but she knew her time was up here. The taunting voice of the Mastermind mused, "Ohhhh...a new player has entered the game! What delicious surprises await! Should we up the fear factor? After all, the more afraid you are...the faster you turn."

What?

What was this?

Jill glanced in horror at Leon. He shook his head, indicating it was something that didn't matter. Not then. What mattered? It was coming over the rise.

The Nemesis. The thing that didn't stop. It roared and leaped. It landed in a skidding surge between her and Leon. Jill backed up, shouting, "YOU SON OF A BITCH! COME ON THEN!"

It surged to its feet and did just that. Alyssa blasted it with the shotgun and earned a swipe of its arm. It threw her out and away, swatted and slapped away to hit the fence and slide to the ground. Jill waited, waited, and rolled as it swung for it.

She grabbed the gun from the ground, blasted it again from a crouch, and dove forward to avoid losing her head to a tentacle. The Nemesis took a tentacle and wrapped her foot tightly, jerking her back toward it as she struggled. Jill rolled to her back, raised the gun, and shot it again from the ground. It's boot came up, it prepared to stomp her into a puddle of blood and bone and Leon's spear hit it in the throat instead. It struck, Nemesis staggered, and Jill blasted it until the gun clicked empty.

Stumbling, blinded or simply wounded, it released her. Jill scrambled, they all ran through the rain, and the Nemesis went to one knee to huddle in the storm. Wounded!? Wounded!? It could be wounded?!

Driven by hope, Jill shouted, "...we can stop it."

Leon nodded, jerking his head as they barreled into narrow alley. He shouted, "Alyssa!?"

Yoko shook her head, "She was down by the fence...I didn't think...I don't know...I think maybe..."

Jill felt a kick of grief. She'd wanted to be wrong. When she'd seen that swollen neck on the blonde, she wanted to be wrong. But she wasn't. The Nemesis had broken Alyssa's neck.

She made a sound of regret.

Leon shook his head, "We're getting out. We keep going."

Jill staggered and he grabbed her elbow to sling her back into a run, "Run, Jill! You hear me!? RUN!"

She ran. She wanted to stop running and just breathe, but there was no break. She ran. She ran down the stairs and across the long path. The cameras, she knew, were all over the city. No matter where they ran, the bitch in the booth was watching them. That ultra sleek voice was taunt, the eye in the sky would watch. They were alone, but never alone.

Yoko, gasping wildly, warned, "I gotta stop! I gotta stop!"

She grabbed her side and heaved, hunched over with a moan, "...I'm sorry. I'm not the running type. I don't do a lot of cardio."

They cut left barreled down some stairs into the subway. To Jill's surprise, the flickering lights guided them into a small office. Leon shut the door, barring it as best as he could with the desk in the office.

Yoko leaned on the wall, breathing hard. Jill wasn't fairing much better. She tried to catch her breath. Leon was winded but seemed good to go. He paced, questioning, "...if we're infected...if we're all infected...it doesn't matter what we do, does it? It doesn't matter if we fight or die or give up."

Yoko made a small sound like surrender.

Jill, hoarsely, wondered, "So what? I can't let that thing stay loose. I can't. What if it gets outside of the city? It wants me...let me go back and face it. You two can get to the university like Rebecca suggested. Try to hunt up that damn cure."

Surprised, Yoko leaned up, "...cure?"

Leon told her, "...a professor there was supposedly making a cure. You know anything about it?"

Yoko shook her head, "I know where the virology lab is though. We can start there."

Leon nodded, "Awesome. So that's our plan. Get there, get three doses of the cure, blow that son of a bitch up back there and get the hell outta here."

Jill shook her head, "You only need one dose. Let's be honest here."

Surprised, Leon gave her a droll look. She told him, "Come on, Leon. You're immune. We both know that...and me? I'm dead anyway. If I can't stop that thing out there, I'm dead where I stand. Let me do the right thing here and hold it off so you two can escape. You didn't have a reason before when it was just us...but this girl needs you."

Leon stared at her until Yoko said softly, "...what am I missing here?"

Leon laughed, jaw flexing with anger, "Just a girl trying to be a hero."

Jill spat, "Come on! I'm no hero! I'm just trying to do the right thing! Help this girl. It's what you're here for, right? Help her out of the city. Let me do my damn job and help you do that."

He started to answer and a voice came through the office, startling them, "It would seem you need some incentive to fight on and stop cowering. You're running out of a time I'm afraid...so shall we break the stalemate here? Let's remove the bone of contention."

There was a crack of a gun firing. Yoko was thrown back against the lockers with a splash of blood and a squeal of metal. She slid down, leaving a macabre red smear as she went. Jill slid to the floor with a cry of horror. Her hands slapped against the girls chest as she whispered, blood bubbling from her lips, "...west...library...two...one...eight...seven..."

She slumped. Jill whispered, "...don't...please."

And the girl died with a gasp of pain.

She went still, eyes staring and fixed.

Leon shouted, making Jill shiver on the floor, "YOU BITCH! YOU COWARD! YOU CAN'T PLAY WITH PEOPLE'S LIVES LIKE THIS!"

The laughter was sharp and fast, "I can do whatever I want. Now it's just two heroes...which one is the bravest? Will you let Leon go alone into the dirty city now, Jill? Or will you help him to safety? Decisions, decisions..."

The silence was so loud.

Jill stared for a moment at the blood all over her hands.

She lifted them up to stare at them as Leon encouraged, "...get up, Jill.."

She said nothing. He coaxed, "I know it's bad. I know that. I'm-it's...we gotta go. That thing is coming. We gotta move, Jill. Please?"

She let her eyes drift closed. She felt her body seize with the need to cry. She was losing it here. She'd spent days and nights unable to sleep because of nightmares before this. She'd spent hours at her board in her apartment charting, tracking, graphing and deciphering - trying like hell to bring down Umbrella. Now she understood the truth - she was fighting a losing battle.

She was being watched the whole time.

She was toy. She was a game. She was a puppet on a string. She was a chess piece on a board playing against the devil. There was no way she could win. How did she fight that thing chasing her? How did she stop it? How did she protect him?

Her eyes snapped open.

Him?

She knew better. She knew it was stupid, infinitely stupid, to start to worry about the man behind her. He was going to die on her. She knew that. He was going to die on her or leave her or let her down. It was stupid to consider him at all.

She rose to her feet and he caught her forearm to use his shirt and wipe the blood from her hands, encouraging, "...thank you...we can do this. Ok? Just stay with me here. We can do this."

Her gaze drifted over his downturned face as he wiped at her bloody palms. His lashes fanned pretty and long over his cheeks as he worked. She thought Alyssa was right. He was something to look at.

She told him, "...I can't save you."

He lifted his gaze and met hers. They stood in silence for a handful of seconds before he told her, "...yes, you can. Just don't stop trying."

Jesus.

He was a guy who never really stopped believing.

Her heart surged with the stupidity of hope as she nodded, "...ok."

He nodded. He let go of her hands. He offered her the spear. She shook her head. A sad thing to have a fucking spear between them. What could they possibly do with it?

She told him, "...we need better weapons."

He nodded. "Suggestions?"

She sighed and nodded, "Yeah...actually, yeah. I know exactly where to find them."

And, she figured, Chris didn't need them anyway. It was the least he could do for her now. They rushed out into the rain toward his bunker.

It was one of those things she'd always teased him about. He'd insisted he needed it in the event of the apocalypse. He and Claire could live for years down there if needs be. She'd told him he was crazy.

Who was the crazy one now?

He was laughing up his sleeve somewhere.

The bunker was beneath a small shack in the woods just beyond the park. They raced against the storm to get there. The Nemesis, it seemed, had lost her scent for the moment.

She caught the rug in the shack, jerked it back, and opened the small manhole beneath it. Leon blinked as she told him, "Yeah...crazy, right?"

Not so crazy after all.

They went down into the bunker as she hit the lights and the small generator fired up to show Chris' underground hideout. It was a couple of cots, a wall of food in cans and jars, and a wall of weapons.

It was so very, very Redfield.

"All the essentials, he'd say," Jill remarked, "How good are you with heavy weaponry?"

Leon scanned the guns on the wall. He laughed, like a kid in a candy store, "Where has this been all my life?"

She grinned, "Pretty right? Bad news is there's limited ammo. I don't know where he kept most of it. Probably some other bunker, the paranoid bastard. So what we have is only good for a single chance against that thing."

Leon plucked the assault rifle hanging on the wall and seemed pretty steady with it. Jill tilted her head, considering. "Did you say you have some kind of SWAT training?"

He glanced at her and nodded, "I tested high enough with my FTO to qualify for the SWAT course. I was about two days out of that when I signed up for Raccoon."

Jill studied him as he took the single magazine for the AR in his hands and deftly loaded it. He moved like a guy who knew what he was doing. She forgot, when the world was burning around them, that he was trained under the green exterior. He was young, sure, but he was capable. He'd proven that more than once. He was ashamed of cowering, but she didn't think he'd done that all. He'd simply stepped into the training module that said when you're down, your partner backs you up.

Like it or not, he was kinda her partner now.

She was going to do her level best to make sure he stayed alive even if part of her wanted to abandon him to spare him from the thing chasing her and calling for her blood.

She turned toward the closet beside her as Leon spoke into the silence. He was talking about SWAT and S.T.A.R.S. and a desire at one time to have joined the force to work under Wesker. He talked about proving himself from just a kid from a small town with an eye for skeet shooting.

Amused, Jill hissed with pain as she removed her shoulder holster and tugged her shirt up over her head, "Where ya hail from anyway?"

Head down as he loaded his weapon and cleared it like a champ, Kennedy remarked, "Little spot in the road in Texas. Not even a town really, more of a thought after Austin. My parents are the local Sheriff and run the hardware store down there. There's been a Kennedy in the proud Cone County Sheriff's Office since Jesus was a child."

Jill used some of Chris' sanitary wipes to clean up some blood on her belly and arm. Her chest was oozing where she'd been stabbed by the tentacle, but it was healing. She winced and teased, "...you're a rebel huh? Left that proud lineage to be a big city cop."

He glanced up smiling, froze, and she realized it was that she was in her bra. It was just a sports bra, nothing fancy, and covered ten times more than bathing suit would have, but the good boy from the small town? He looked away and faced the ladder.

Touched, Jill remarked, "You should change too. Get a clean shirt on, you never know when we might get the chance again."

She tossed one of Chris' S.T.A.R.S. uniform tops on the table between them with one of Chris' vests. He glanced over and nodded. She slipped a clean undershirt over her head in plain blue, strapped on a tactical vest, and secured her holster back on. Leon shed the bloody shirt he wore and reached for the button down while Jill gave him the same privacy and turned to face the ladder.

"The crazy bitch on the camera must have cleaned your wound there."

Leon murmured, "...kinda scares me that she did."

Jill tended to agree.

She instructed, "We're gonna have to get him into a kill box. To do that, we need a place where we can control the variables."

He stepped up beside her and made her breath catch in that damn top. He looked good in a S.T.A.R.S. uniform, no getting around that. They hefted their respective weapons as Jill told him, "I've got about a dozen rounds for the shotgun. You've got what you found for that. Between us, we need something bigger."

Leon, considering, finally mused, "...what if we use it's goddamn momentum against it?"

Surprised, she tilted her head. He shook his and informed her, "The eyes are everywhere, right? Follow my lead and you'll understand."

He started up the ladder, hissing as his wound protested, and Jill followed, curious, "You gonna make it?"

Leon chuckled a little, "I'm gonna give it my best shot."

She rolled her eyes, "...you just make a pun there?"

He snorted. She appreciated, more than he knew, the stab at humor. Stab? Her shoulder ached. Apparently, her mind wanted to make bad jokes too. Maybe this was how they dealt with it.

Maybe it was bad jokes and surviving.

Maybe it was just the only way to keep from collapsing in regret and remorse.

They reached the top of the ladder and she told him, "The woods will open to the park about a half mile that way. If we cut through, we can use the clo-"

He caught her arms to hold her still. Surprised, Jill fell silent. His eyes were locked over her head. There was flickers of firelight in them and she thought,- _Pretty. Pale blue with the flames in them...pretty._

She tended to agree with what Alyssa had said. He was pretty to look at.

His face wasn't amused anymore. It was a mask of something bad, something wrong, something she didn't want to know. So, she asked, "...what?"

He closed his eyes and shook his head. She jerked on her arms now, demanding, "What!? What is it!?"

She turned toward the fire. A bus was burning near the road toward the mountains. Her eyes narrowed, trying to make sense of it. It was just one more burning pyre in a funeral that had once been a metropolis.

But it wasn't.

It wasn't.

_It wasn't._

The license plate on the bus read L1K1T. Her mind flashed back -_Olive laughing. Olivia and the children pointing and joking, "Lick it! Who would lick a bus!?Ewwww!"_

Who would lick a bus?

The funeral pyre was the bus she'd sent to safety. It was all those she'd gathered and risked her life for. It was the last hope she'd had in a horror show of loss. She sank to her knees right there in trees.

The gun clunked to the ground and left her vulnerable. It left her exposed. It left her unguarded.

There were smears of blood all over the windows. She could see faces against glass and bodies tossed inside the burning interior. The bus had been waylaid. She had no doubt Sister Adaline had stopped to pick up more survivors. Something had joined them on that bus. Something had turned. Something had killed them from inside and forced the bus to crash.

Olivia had died screaming.

They all had.

She'd failed them.

Her eyes stayed on the fire as a single tear squeezed free to slide down her cheek.

Undone, Leon gripped her arms to try to lift her up, but she stayed there on her knees. Afraid, he demanded, "Get up, Jill. Up. Come on...get up."

Her wet gaze shifted to his face, "...why? I can't do this anymore. I don't want to...I want to walk over there and let the fire take me." To his horror, she shouted, "I'm here! YOU STUPID SON OF A BITCH! COME TAKE ME!"

He slapped her and made them both freeze in surprise.

It worked though, she hunkered away and the rage on her ate through the surrender. He crouched and spat, "...not like this. You hear me? Not this way. I need you to get up. I need you to help me. I can't just lay down and die like this...I can't. And I can't let you do it either."

Broken, she let him cup her face gently now on one side. She wanted to fall forward and weep until she was empty on the dirty ground. Her hand lifted and gripped his wrist, seizing around it, "...why!?"

He leaned forward and informed her, "...if you don't save one life, you'll never save any."

Jesus.

He wanted to save her.

He cared enough to risk everything for her - some woman he'd never met in a city gone to hell. What kind of man was this? What kind of faith was that? How did he manage it when they'd already lost so much?

He urged, "Bertolucci and the girl, Kendo and his daughter...it's not all lost, Jill. It's not over. Help me...save me...and make it count."

Her heart seized, "...damnit, Kennedy...I'm not special. I'm not anything but a person who tried to do the right thing. Look what happened to them!" Her shout echoed and scared him.

He caught the other side of her face and held her there to look at him as he demanded, "I know...I see it. I can't even imagine what it feels like for you. I can't, but I can do this. I can end this. We can do it together. Get up, come with me, and save my life."

Her hands came up and shoved against his chest. He released her as she rose, gripping the gun in both hands. Her teeth clenched to stop the wet tears that leaked from her eyes.

Save him.

Could she?

She'd failed them all. She wanted to cross through the woods and roast beside them. And then?

He told her, "...let's the kill the son of a bitch who did this to them."

What?

What did that mean?

And then she saw what it meant. She understood. Standing in the swirling flame before the bus, the thing she'd spent all this time fleeing waited for them. He watched them, the flames eating at his clothes while he simply stared. The Nemesis.

He'd stopped the bus. He'd killed them all. He'd sought them out to finish them...to lure her there to his kill box.

Hell or high water...it was time to see who'd be the last man standing.

It was time to stop the Nemesis.

It was the last thing she could do for all of them.


	7. Dawn7

**Gone by Dawn**

* * *

**Part One:**

**-Downfall-**

* * *

**Chapter 7: Kill Box**

* * *

**Raccoon City**

* * *

The oily sky ran like paint on a canvas - grays and blacks, blues, and bold streaks of white. Against the wall, filthy and sweaty, soaked in determination and regret, Jill Valentine gathered the resolve to finish what she'd started. It wasn't easy, but she'd never been a woman who gave up when something seemed impossible.

She'd lured the Nemesis as if she were the bait in a bad movie. She'd ducked and run, swerved, and pivoted. She'd tucked, rolled, turned down dark corners, and taken flights of fear to lend wings to her worried feet. She cowered in the shadows now, regaining the will to finish, finding the fight within the urge to flee. The plan was a good one, as good as any given the time they'd spent arranging it.

She just had to _survive. _

The kitchen was narrow and industrial, a cafeteria-style with rows of wash bins and long lines of refrigeration units against one wall. She tucked between the stove and the edge of the cabinet where dry goods were stored, silent as a tomb, quiet as a mouse, ready like the prey that awaits the predator. She heard the tromp of boots beyond the room. Her sharp breathing amplified with terror, annoying her, but unable to quell the desire to abandon the plan and run for her life. She stuck in place, heart pounding.

The heavy fall of pursuit was a slow-motion slide into sheer feral survival. When she heard the Nemesis enter the kitchen, her hand-rolled around on her weapon as she simply leaned out of hiding and whistled. The ugly head whipped. The warped face collapsed into lines of hunger and rage. It roared from its ruined mouth, warbling a worrisome warrior's cry as it ducked those massive shoulders and came for her.

"STAARRRRZZZZ!"

Jill braced and returned, heart racing, "You son of a bitch! _Come get some goddamn stars!"_

She stared it in the face while it came for her. She waited, breath bated, not running, not moving. Her eyes flicked to the door that emptied from the kitchen to the back staircase to the alley. She waited, waited, waited, and prayed the plan was still in place. What if...what if Leon had died during his own turn as bait?

What if she'd just blown her only chance of escape by revealing herself!?

She had to trust a man she barely knew. She wasn't known for it. She wasn't the type to trust anyone, anymore. She'd been betrayed too often, too much, but too many men in too many positions of power. What if Leon had simply...run for his life and left her for dead?

With no hope for it, she trusted the young cop who'd more than once risked himself to save her, and stuck to the plan.

From the doorway beyond the racing form of her death dressed in black burning leather, a voice shouted, "NOW JILL! NOW!"

She turned her weapon from the racing face of the Nemesis and threw herself past the stove and scrambled, voice high with fear as one of those tentacles whipped the air above her where she'd been. She ran for the stairwell, racing through the dark. The Nemesis split it's focus between her and Leon...and something unexpected happened.

It caught sight of Leon in Chris' uniform...and it stopped chasing her to turn on him.

Just like that, the plan went to hell, because it suddenly had more than one target in that room as it roared, "STARRRRZZZZ!"

"NO!" She was terrified now as she shouted it. Why hadn't she considered that!? Why hadn't it crossed her mind!? It saw Leon as a member of S.T.A.R.S. now. It suddenly had more than one mission parameter in this room.

Leon commanded, in a roar that spurred her forward against her will, "GO! KEEP MOVING! STICK TO THE PLAN!"

Just like that, she knew he'd planned for this. He'd known the Nemesis would see him in that uniform and target him. He'd done that to turn all the attention from her to him. It was deliberate.

He was taking the heat off her, and turning it on himself.

As Nemesis lifted it's arm, she saw the truth attached to it. She understood the plan in full now. She knew what Leon had meant by desperate times, desperate measures. It was risky. It was marked with error. It was stupid, bold, and brave in ways she had no name for.

The room was filled with gas from the goddamn stove.

The thing on the end of the Nemesis arm was a mother fucking flamethrower...and this kill box was a perfect oven to broil him where he stood. She dove. Leon disappeared from her view as she hit the door to the stairwell and she heard the whoosh of fire the end of that deadly arm. There was a click like a spark igniting as she hit the stairs and started down in a desperate race, and the door was blown off the hinges behind her. It hit the wall and the force of air and flame sent her rolling down the stairs.

She hit on her shoulders, she tucked and tried to save her face, she rolled and bumped, thumped and crumbled, and finally came to a stop at the bottom door. Dizzy, she listened to the sounds of crackling flame above her for a moment while she got her bearings. Aching, she finally rose and shoved open the emergency exit door to the alley.

She leaned on the wall of the neighboring building and used it as a crutch to flee the flames behind her. The gush of it had blown out the wall above where the kitchen was located. Chunks of mortar and brick rained down on her as she moved. The heat of the night was instant, singing your lungs as you breathe. It smelled of flesh on fire and fuel.

Jill limped into the open street, gasping as she hurried toward their rendezvous spot. She pushed toward the garage door left slightly ajar in the distance and the beckoning light. Her sore back protested as she ducked under it and ambled into the cool interior. She waited, breath held, as she assessed her injuries. She didn't know if he'd made it. She couldn't know if he'd made it. She was afraid it was over.

She was afraid he'd died in the fire.

And then the door rumbled and he appeared from beneath it. His foot caught the heavy metal and shoved it down, sealing them in. The sounds of fire and rain beyond the metal were muffled as he remarked, "...stupid asshole got me with a bitch slap."

He turned and Jill was staring at him. Leon stared back, mouth twitching. They were both filthy, both showing smears of soot and blood, both tired and triumphant. Had it worked? Had it finally worked?

There was no way to know, but it had been the best plan they could come up with at the time. Maybe blowing his big ass up was the answer. Maybe.

Quietly, Jill accused, "...you knew it would target you."

Leon said nothing.

She added, voice lifting, "You _knew _it would target you when you put on that uniform. You set it up so it would come after you. Why!?"

Again, he said nothing.

She huffed in anger and turned away. The entrance to the subway beckoned, inviting them to attempt to get to the university via that path instead of risking their lives above ground. They had little choice at this point. They had to attempt to get a cure.

She was running out of time.

They didn't speak as they boarded the train that waited at the stop beneath them. It was easy enough to force the subway into an emergency route. It would take them through the clocktower plaza and beyond the zoo. It would drop them at the university.

A straight shot.

A simple escape.

The train raced through the tunnel. Jill sat staring through the window at the darkness beyond. She was so tired. She wasn't sure if it was the infection she carried or sheer defeat. She wasn't sure how she knew, but she knew that damn thing wasn't dead. It couldn't be that easy. It wouldn't be that easy.

She wasn't sure why, but she knew it was going to take more than a well-timed explosion to end it all.

After a long silence, Leon finally spoke, "...stop."

She glanced at his face's reflection in the window before her. He was leaning on the wall of the subway car, arms crossed, one boot braced with his knee bent. He commanded again, "Stop. It's not your fault."

She laughed with derision, "It's all my fault. I failed to get anyone to listen. I failed to get anything stopped. I failed to save this city. I failed...and all that's left now is a monster hell-bent on finishing me off. I failed. We both know it. Don't try to give me some sanctimonious speech on how it's the bad guys who did it. I know that. I know good guys stop the bad guys. I know I failed to stop them. So.."

She trailed off, letting her eyes close. It was a bad idea. Olivia was there beyond her lids, laughing and dancing. Olive was there, dying and screaming. Olivia was dead. They all were. Everyone in this goddamn city was dead.

She'd failed everyone who mattered.

With a small sound of regret, Jill leaned forward and put her elbows on her knees and her face in her hands.

The clack of wheels on tracks nearly covered the sound of her weeping.

Leon watched her quietly, letting her weep. She needed it. She needed the release. She needed to feel it to forge ahead. He knew that, but it hurt him to watch it. It wasn't her fault. She was blinded by survivor's guilt and good old fashioned responsibility. She'd signed on to save lives and lost.

It sucked.

It was as bad as it got.

This? It was a nightmare, but it wasn't her fault. She'd done everything she could to stop it. It just...didn't work.

He doubted she'd care to hear it now.

So, he let her grieve and stood guard while she fell apart.

* * *

There was a soft touch on her face that made her eyes flutter. Jill roused, awakened from a sleep she didn't even know she'd fallen into. Her head was braced on Leon's bicep, her hand curled at his thigh. He'd sat beside her at some point and she'd leaned on him.

It wasn't anything more than sheer exhaustion, but it still made her feel flush with weakness as she rose.

They both said nothing as they exited the train.

The courtyard of the university felt ripe with horror. Blood smeared backpacks and grass. Bodies that littered in places like they'd been gunned down in mid-run. It was hard to tell what had been a zombie and what had been a human caught in the crossfire.

Jill stared so hard straight forward her neck hurt from it. Leon seemed more aware of their surroundings. He made a small sound of horror and she whispered, "...don't do that."

He simply nodded and said no more.

They entered carefully through the main doors to find themselves in an ornate lobby with dual stairwells. A large oil canvas painting of a snotty faced man drew the attention as they stopped at the welcome desk to attempt to find a map of the grounds. Jill dug through drawers while Leon speculated, "...you think he was constipated when they painted that?"

She glanced at him. He gave her a droll look. Her mouth twitched as she went back to digging.

It wasn't a laugh, but it was something.

Jill tugged free a campus brochure and opened it on the desk. Leon leaned over her as she pointed, "Here. The science lab. We have to cross through the welcome building and cut across the west courtyard. There's an elevator that takes you to B-1 where the lab is located."

She gave a snort at the brochure proclaiming - _Feats of incredible scientific discovery could be yours!_

Leon shook his head, "...why did I just picture a pair of enormous feet in lab coats?"

She gave him another look that had him smiling at her. She had to give him credit, he was trying here. She was being a bitch by resisting, but she just couldn't muster the heart. She felt empty after crying in the train car. She felt raw. She felt wounded in more than body. She was a little worried that she was trying to give up. That feeling alone was what made her drive harder now.

She'd save this kid beside her if it was the last thing she did.

It was all she had left now.

As they made their way across the courtyard, both were aware of the lack of undead they came across. They were on pins and needles by the time they reached the library Yoko had spoke of and started looking for what might require the number sequence she'd left them. It didn't take long to uncover the panel for the elevator and plug in the numbers.

The quiet ride to the basement level of the university made her aware of how bad things were for both of them. He was trying, that was true, but his face when he wasn't turning up the charm for her was worried and tired. She reached over gripped his forearm with her hand not holding the shotgun. He simply nodded and winked at her.

It was the best they could do, but it was something.

Digging around in the basement did little but turn up another set of directions talking about the genetics lab on the third floor. The only problem there was the understanding they'd need a card key to get inside. A list of doctors on a computer in the lab told them they had names of those _with _keys, for all the good that did.

So, they began searching anything in a lab coat for the potential gold mine of the missing key they'd need.

They covered the basement level and found a smear of blood leading toward an exterior exit door. Leon cleared through first and brought them out into the chilly night air. The smell of sea was thick and close. You could hear the toll of buoys in the water beyond the edge of the shoreline and glimpse the wreckage of several over turned boats in the inky dark water.

The blood trail took them down a flight of stairs and across the pier there to find the lucky owner of a card key. The body was crumped on its side and missing most of its upper torso and head. Disgusted, Leon muttered, "...jesus...what the hell got this poor bastard?"

As if in answer, a familiar cry lit the air around them, "STARRRZZZZ!"

With horror, they turned to find the Nemesis, still burning in places on his destroyed leather coat, crossing the planks toward them. They turned, running in tandem up the long stairs to the other side of the pier. Jill raced across the bridge and paused with her mind racing.

What had Leon said back in the woods?

What had he mentioned?

It clicked in her head as she announced, "...use his own momentum against him."

Leon paused. He tilted his head. Jill nodded, eyes darting as the Nemesis came barreling up the stairs where they'd been. She invited, desperately, "...fire doesn't work, right?...what about _water?"_

And Leon, face alight, encouraged, "Right...right. Let's see if this son of a bitch can swim."

They split apart, Nemesis barreled toward them, and Leon blasted him in the back of the head with the AR. He whirled around, Jill shot him in the back with the shotgun, and he threw one of those tentacles at Leon as he spun back toward Jill. She backed up until she could feel the cold air against her butt from the steel wall behind her. She hesitated, unsure how to use his own momentum but it didn't matter.

Nemesis chose that moment to race toward Leon anyway. He caught the other man with a tentacle, looping it around his throat and whipping him off his feet to smash him into the wall of the bridge. Jill shouted, shot Nemesis in the back again, and he threw Leon at her like a weapon. He smashed into her, the weight of him threw her into the bridge wall, and they both went through in a tangle of limbs. Metal screamed, they plummeted down, down, down, and went under lost in the cold, cold sea.

She wasn't sure HOW she knew it's what he wanted, but the second she heard Nemesis roar and pursue them, she got it. She knew. It didn't have human intelligence after all. It was too stupid to figure out it couldn't swim.

It sank, roaring, throwing its arms in a parody of a human drowning and it sunk like a stone in the oily depths. They swam toward the shore, a tentacle looped around her ankle and jerked, and down she went while Leon shouted in denial. It took her under, she rolled in the water and blasted the tentacle with the shotgun while she fought to hold her breath, and the thing released her when Nemesis was simply too far down to hold on anymore.

She shot toward the surface, broke the edge of the water, and felt Leon grab her flailing arm, and he jerked her up onto the pier gasping for air.

They half-ran, half limped, half coughed their way to the top of the bridge again, soaked and scared but alive. Would it just sink to the bottom of the ocean and stay there? Would it suffocate and drown?

Did it really matter?

They hurried through the cold and tucked into the building through an open door above where they'd been. Emerging into a small hallway, they discovered they were on C-3 according to the closed shutter there blocking their way forward. Instead, they veered through the side door and came out once more in the lobby where they'd first entered.

Jill hurried across the upper balcony and through the adjacent door. Leon, behind her, made sure to shut doors as they went. It was thoughtful, somehow, and made her remember how useful he was. They crossed they open the corridor together and halted.

Before them, a white piece of hanging plastic was stained red with blood. It looked like something had splatter painted it an attempt to make a Jackson Pollack. Jill froze, staring, and wondered how many dead bodies it had taken to soak it until it dripped like that.

She started to speak and a voice cut her off, "...good. Just in time apparently."

A woman's voice called, "Come on then...don't be shy. We both know I've been watching you this whole time anyway. Do me the courtesy of showing yourself in the light."

With little choice, Jill emerged beyond the bloody plastic, gun raised. The woman laughed with delight. Skinny, blonde, built tall and willowy, she wore a white lab coat and watched them form beyond a desk with rows of monitors.

Jill, shimmering with rage now, demanded, "Start talking before I make sure that was your last laugh."

The woman shrugged and announced, "What's to hide now? It's all over anyway. I'm Annette. You haven't had the pleasure of my husband, it seems, as he found his way to an early death in the labs we'd spent years building. The sample of G is gone. The city is lost. All that's left now is the research I'd so desperately attempted to finish for him."

She lifted her hand off her belly to show she was bleeding, badly. "But even that, I'm afraid, will never finish. The bitch who stole my virus made sure she took the best of me with her...in more ways than one."

Leon emerged now, holding his AR on the woman, and demanded, "...what bitch?"

Annette laughed again and slumped down in the chair behind the desk, "What does it matter anyway? You've met. I saw you meet. She robbed you too, right? Fucking communist bitch...working for her government no doubt, unable to understand the brilliance of it all and stealing for centuries..."

Jill froze and finally barked, "...shit...Ada."

Leon shook his head, "Who is she? What does she really want?"

Annette sighed dramatically, "Haven't you figured that out yet? She's Umbrella...she has to be...this is their city, this is their mess, this is their _fault."_ She touched a photo on the desk with great remorse, "...I tried, my love...I tried."

Jill snapped, "No one cares about your remorse! You worked for them! You were one of them! You did this! I'm gonna make sure you _burn _for it!"

Annette gave her a pitying look, "Oh? Will you take me in? I'll never make it, you fool. I'm dying...and as we know, so are you." She gave Jill a smirk, "The infection is going to get you, Jill...unless you get the cure...you'll be in the dark forever. You need Daylight."

She said it like it was a capitalized word. She said it like it was the answer. Was it? Was the cure called Daylight?

Jill started to ask about it and Annette glanced up. She registered fear before she whispered, "...you son of a bit-"

Her head exploded like she'd swallowed a grenade. It erupted in a spray of bone and blood. Jill shouted, aiming her weapon at the ceiling, but there was no one there. Not a soul. Someone had executed her but left them alive. Why!? What greater forces were in play here? Who was keeping them alive now that the mastermind in that goddamn game they'd been playing was dead?

After a moment, a beeping began. Jill spun in circles. Leon leveled his gun around the room and finally, he cursed, "...mother of god..."

A small package of C-4 was taped to a pipe in the ceiling. It was happily counting down the minutes until detonation. It was happily telling them how long they had until their entire world went up in flames.

They had ten minutes until game over.


	8. Dawn8

**Gone by Dawn**

* * *

**Part One:**

**-Downfall-**

* * *

**Chapter 8: Escape from Raccoon City**

* * *

**Raccoon City**

* * *

There was no chance of making a vaccine now. The ability to replicate Daylight had died with Annette. What choice did they have but to try? Leon wouldn't have it any other way. He'd done his level best to beat the machine into submission.

Sadly, no amount of brute strength was going to gain the knowledge they needed to cure Jill.

"...just give up, Leon."

He banged the keys again in a vain attempt to get the machine to process a vaccine sample. "Damn _you - work!"_

Jill put a hand on his bicep and tugged him back from the machine. "We don't have time for you to argue with this goddamn box of bolts, we need to go. We need to go _right now."_

He gave her an exasperated look, "...but the vaccine, Jill. We need it now. _You _need it!"

She shook her head and tugged on him, "The vaccine might have failed anyway, Leon. The one thing we know for sure? If we don't get moving, we're both dead in about eight minutes. So fuck it, forget it, and let's _go!"_

He stopped arguing. They started running. There was no alert, no timer to show them they were on a deadline. There was no lady announcing a detonation. There was nothing but boots and silence as they ran. They'd never make it to ground level, so they chose to go up to the roof instead of down.

The roof caught a cold breeze as they emerged, Leon racing to the edge to judge the distance into the water. Three stories up - could they survive the fall?! He swung around to ask Jill and froze in horror.

They were no longer alone on the roof.

Wet, rippling, naked muscle and bleeding bone accompanied the Nemesis as it crossed the level stone toward them. Leon backed up and whistled. Jill didn't look as he gestured with his head. She just nodded. She ran to him. He backed up until his feet teetered on the edge. The Nemesis threw a tentacle at them with a roar of rage and Jill tackled him around the middle.

The tentacle swished over their heads, Leon locked his arms around her in the tightest hug on record, and down they went into the dark. The hit to the water hurt like hell. They submerged, spiraling downward clutching each other. When their descent slowed, they both let go and swam toward the surface.

Before she could pop free into the dark, Leon grabbed her shirt and tugged her back down. He shook his head and gestured through the water at the boat there apparently left tempest-tossed by angry rioters. They swam toward it, staying beneath the freezing waves.

Jill followed him through a crack in the hull of the boat, easing through the wreckage until they were able to break the surface of the water with the half-submerged Captain's quarters surrounding them. Leon swam to the still exposed staircase and pushed himself free. He put a hand down to help her out as she followed.

Breathing heavy, he started to ask her about something when the world shook around them. Instead, he pinned her to the wall of the ship and covered her with himself. The boat rocked, the water lapping madly at the submerged portion they'd left behind as the building of the university exploded with a burp of flame and flying debris. They heard it rain around the ship as they waited, breath held, for the concussion to finish.

After a moment, Leon leaned back from where he'd pinned her. Her face was pressed into his neck until he turned his head to look at her. They held gazes from inches away as she mused, tone rich with amusement, "...thanks...big hero."

Flushing a little, he backed off.

Jill shook her head, lugging her shotgun up and trying to divest it of some of the water it had attempted to swallow during their swim. "...so water won't kill it. Fire won't kill it. What's left?"

Leon was so quiet that she turned her gaze to him and asked, "What? What is it?"

He shook his head, "...you just abandoned the cure back there. You just left it. You're still infected."

Jill shrugged, heart lurching with the truth of that, "So what? It doesn't matter. What matters is stopping that thing. We have to stop it, Leon. We can't let it stay loose in this city. If I die doing that...so be it."

"...then I guess we better make sure you don't die. Fire won't work. Water won't work. What about something bigger?"

Jill tilted her head, "Like a rocket?"

He laughed, shrugging, "You know where we can score one? Maybe we jam it right up that things ass and turn it into monster soup."

Jill considered that for a moment before she advised, "...the National Guard building is probably picked clean by now. I'm sure people have raided it and stolen anything worth attempting to protect yourself."

Leon nodded and then froze, head tilted, as an idea flicked across his face, "...so no gun...no rocket launcher...but what about a _tank?"_

It was the worst idea in the world, but it wasn't like that had a better one. So they agreed to attempt to reach the National Guard armory on the west side of town. Maybe they'd luck out and find a working tank with an M829 round just waiting to blow up their stalker. Why not? So far, they'd had little to no luck with any other plan. Why not hope this one would work?

Jill took a moment to think before she told him, "If we luck out, I'll play bait. You find a way to use a tank and kill it."

His look was droll, "Sure...because one of us was in the army and the other wasn't. I'll be the bait. You? You work the tank."

Right. He had a point, although she didn't know how to operate a tank any more than she knew how to fly a helicopter, but hey - what the hell, right? Seize the day. What choice did they have? Somebody had to try.

He kept on staring at her until she turned away. They were both quiet as they mounted the stairs to the deck of the boat and moved to one side to lower the life raft back into the water. It was motorized and easy to guide around the floating pieces of what was left of the university.

The building burned like a funeral pyre, smoking and sending curls of flame into the heated sky. It crackled, the fire guiding them like a moth to the flame, as they rounded the mess and pushed onward. The raft went up onto the ground near the park.

Leon stepped off first, offered Jill a hand to help her clear, and she shook her head. She didn't need to be tugged free again. She didn't need anything. She didn't need him or hope or any freaking vaccine. She could do this without any of it. Maybe she was dead anyway. Maybe that was true, but she was going to die taking that goddamn monster with her.

It was the only thing left in her world that made sense.

She blinked hard against the threat of tears as the image of Olivia taunted behind her lids. Olivia showing her a picture she'd drawn of them holding hands. Olivia squeezing her in the tightest hug to see if she could win the hug war.

She was going to kill that son of a bitch for Olivia and Sister Adaline and that bus full of people who'd still had hope.

She had to.

Revenge was all she had left now.

* * *

It wasn't a big surprise to find the armory picked clean as she'd expected. There was little in the way of useful wares. They rooted around but didn't find a single RPG waiting to save their asses amongst the rubble. They did find a tank, although neither was sure if there was ammunition in the chamber waiting to save them.

And then?

Leon rose from behind a desk holding a fat-bellied container. Jill froze where she digging through a locker. He set it on the desk before him. The lock was simple enough. She was able to surprise him and pick it with paper clip after a handful of moments.

He gave her a long look and had her shrugging. "It comes in handy."

He tilted his head as he considered her in a new light, "...I bet. You made that lock your bitch."

She shrugged again, "It was as easy as it gets actually. The hard ones are digital."

Leon nodded and opened the container. Inside? A gift that was greater than gold.

Eight beautiful, perfect, pretty as a picture filled with daisies in daylight, squat bodied...grenades.

He turned his head toward her and invited, "...wanna touch one?"

Her mouth twitched as he added, "It feels real good. You wanna stick your hand in here with me?"

She rolled her eyes and felt the humor of it. She had to give him credit, he tried really hard to be a tough guy. He acted as if he wasn't scared shitless and trying to survive. There were echoes of something bigger than a street cop in him when he moved. His plan to play bait to Nemesis was both brave and self-sacrificing. He was, for lack of a better word, a fledgling hero. He had the makings of something more inside that very young, very eager package.

To give him a little of his own effort back, Jill put her hand in the container and gripped one of the grenades. She twitched her lips, "Feels a little cold to me."

His hand slid over the top of hers and gripped gently as he murmured, "...how about now?"

She blinked. Her gaze shifted from the grenades to his face. She'd spent a long time alone now. She'd spent countless hours trying to survive and save others and uncover a conspiracy. She hadn't thought about a man like a man or more than a rung on a ladder to somewhere else in a months.

She wasn't blind. She saw the interest. It was misplaced. It was severely ill-timed. It was still flattering.

Her hand slid out from under his as she turned away with the grenade in her grip. "That might be more heat than either of us can handle."

Leon watched her walk away with the grenade in her palm. She was right. It was the wrong time, the worst possible, to consider her like that. Hell, she was infected, they were ass deep in death, and just trying to keep from joining the hordes of horrors swarming the streets below them. It was as bad as it got.

There was no time to look at her like that...it didn't stop him from looking. Shit, life was a series of bad choices sometimes. It didn't hurt anyone for him to look. It reinforced his determination to make sure she survived.

Putting it aside, Leon encouraged, "...so how do we use these bad boys to stop that bastard?"

Jill turned to face him, inhaling a hard breath as she instructed, "How else? We use your plan."

His brow arched. She licked her lips and told him, "...ready to play bait again?"

He couldn't help it, he just laughed.

* * *

Jill waited in the under hang at the subway station. She wasn't sure how she really felt about risking Leon like they were, but it was the best plan they had. He was out there luring their nemesis into a game of cat and mouse. He was fast, he was smart, and he was capable.

She knew that.

She trusted he'd survive.

Jill blinked, hand curled around the grenade in her grip. Trusted? Did she? Did she trust him? She realized she did. He'd earned it. He was out there risking his life for a woman who likely didn't have a day left on this Earth. He was worth trusting.

It almost annoyed her to admit it. She didn't want to care about him. Caring about him was risky, given their current situation. It could end with him dead in a ditch or infected or turning against her when it was all over.

How did she trust anyone?

There was a racket from beyond the door and he ducked under, commanding, "GO!"

No time to debate it anymore, it was game on.

Jill sprinted for the subway train and toward the controls. Leon urged her, "Full throttle!"

She pushed the lever and the train groaned, rolling to a start. They heard the door rip away in a scream of metal as the Nemesis came roaring into the station. It lumbered for the stairs as they squealed away from the stop and went into full motion.

His ugly face disappeared as they moved.

Leon hurried toward the back of the train. The door opened and their plan? It took a turn into the unexpected. There was a gun aimed at them. Jill went to lift hers and Leon grabbed the barrel, forcing it back down.

"-Carlos!?"

The man in front of them lowered his weapon in shock. It was to her surprise that both men seemed glad to see the other. Who was Carlos? She narrowed her gaze at them as the other man returned, "Leon! _Dios mio..._I thought you were both dead!"

Leon shook his head, "Not yet man. Jill - this is Carlos. He's the reason you're not dead."

What?

Jill furrowed her brow and Carlos instructed, "Don't worry about it now, sweetheart, you can thank me later."

Sweetheart. Ugh. He was that type of guy. The guy who called you honey and sweetie and darling. Jill shoved through the two of them and ran for the back of the train. Carlos gave Leon a look that the rookie replied, "...she takes some getting used to."

Carlos chuckled and shrugged.

They both joined her at the back of the train as Jill ripped open the back door. The Nemesis was coming, faster than they'd expected. It was running full tilt for the train. Leon pulled the pin on one of the grenades, counted down, and threw it toward their pursuer.

It rolled, the Nemesis roared and threw a tentacle at them in rage, and the damn thing went off like a pretty firework. Boom.

BOOM.

The concussion shook the tunnel. The Nemesis was thrown into the side of it and rocked it harder, sending the train trembling and shaking in response. They stumbled, Carlos tumbling against Jill, Leon grabbing the pole beside him to stay on his feet.

The Nemesis went to its face in the tunnel and was still.

Carlos gripped Jill's arms above the elbows and asked, "You ok, honey?"

She shook her arms free and returned, "I'm fine."

He watched her turn toward the subway car and freeze. Her gaze was locked on his equipment piled in a seat there. She blinked. She ducked down and picked up the RPG round without its launcher.

Carlos sighed, "Yep...got the guts...missing the rest."

Jill wondered, "Any idea where we'd find the rest?"

Carlos smiled at her and winked, "Where'd you think I was headed? The evacuation chopper is set to touch down on top of the clock tower in about forty minutes. It'll have what we need."

Leon narrowed his gaze, "You were just gonna run away? What about all the survivors?"

Carlos gave them a sympathetic look, "You don't know?"

Jill prompted, "Know what?"

Carlos shook his head, "...this city is done for. The sanitation order was given. We've got an hour to get the hell out of here before we become another statistic."

An hour.

Sanitation meant only one thing - bombs. They were going to bomb the shit out of Raccoon and level it to the ground. It was the only way they knew how to contain the outbreak. It was stupid, it was immediate, it was decisive and quick. They were done trying to fight to reclaim it. They were just going to damn the rest of the living to join the dead.

Leon shook his head, "No. No way. They wouldn't."

Carlos shrugged, "They don't care about the dead, brother, they only care about the living. This shit spreads outside Raccoon and the rest of the world is fucked."

Jill shook her head. She sat down hard in one of the seats and put her face in her hands in regret. That was it. It was over. All she'd done, all she'd braved, all the truth of what had happened - lost in a fire that would destroy it all. She'd fought for nothing.

It was over.

Carlos spoke gently now, voice thick with regret, "I'm sorry, for what it's worth. I didn't know when we got here what we were sent to do. They sent in a recon team to gather what they could. They sent us to eliminate the dead if we could, but we were quickly overrun. We didn't know a damn thing about the who. We thought it was Irons working outside of his pay grade. It was too late to save anyone. I didn't...I didn't see another living soul on my way here. Just you guys."

Leon was facing the open door and watching for the Nemesis. His voice was hard, "...they're out there. They're trying like hell to survive...and they'll just-they're gonna kill everyone. I can't believe it."

Jill lowered her hands, "Believe it. He's right. They don't care about survivors. They want us all dead. If we die, the truth dies with us. They can pretend it wasn't a government-sanctioned program. They can pretend it was Umbrella alone who damned us all. They want us dead so we can't tell the world that their own government was creating monsters in their backyard."

The silence drug out until Carlos told them, "Let's get the hell outta here...we'll handle the rest later."

Jill said nothing. Leon said nothing. They were both processing their pain in different ways. His came from a flagrant violation of what he believed to be the good in the world. Hers was from failure to save anyone...no one. Not a soul.

Sure Kendo was free with his daughter...and Bertolucci with the Mayor's girl...but in a city of hundreds of thousands...it seemed a pyrrhic victory. She lifted her head and told them, "I'm infected still. I didn't get the vaccine...I should stay behind to make sure the Nemesis doesn't escape before the bombing."

Carlos arched his brows, "...what?"

Leon said nothing.

She laughed with regret, "I should stay. What does it matter now? What choice is there? What if we flee and the Nemesis follows? What if it leaves the city in pursuit of us and avoids the bombs?...I have to stay. I have to see it die. I have to know I did this...at least this one thing...right."

Carlos whistled and shook his head on a laugh, "You're a brave bitch, I gotta give you credit. But I got a better idea."

Jill arched her brows, "What?"

He winked at her, "We lure that nasty bastard to that roof. We time it so we feed his face that rocket beside you. He goes down, we take off, and we make damn sure he stays down before that bomb hits. Even his big nasty ass can't survive sanitation."

Leon's silence was starting to worry her, but Jill rose anyway and nodded, "Fine. We'll try it your way...but if it fails...I'm staying."

Carlos nodded, "Deal."

Jill glanced at Leon, "I'm staying. Do you understand?"

Leon glanced at her and shook his head, "It won't come to that but for the sake of good graces here, I'll agree. Sure. I'll leave you behind. Why not? Nobody is telling the truth anyway, right? So I can lie and not feel bad about it."

Carlos twitched his lips. Jill sighed, "Stop trying to save me, rookie. I'm already dead."

"You should have turned by now and you haven't. You're not dead. You need to accept that just maybe...that transfusion halted the virus in its steps. You need to accept that you just might survive this and not a reason to give up."

They glared at each other. She finally turned away, "You think you know what I need? You don't have a clue what I'm feeling."

He gripped her arm and spun her back around, "Don't I? You're giving up. You _want _to die. You made that clear long before now. You want to die so just maybe you can atone for the people you think you failed...but you didn't fail them, Jill! You tried! You did everything you could and lost. It sucks. It's awful. It's the worst, but it's not over. Don't you get it? It can't be over. You have to live! You have to try! Because the people in this city can't have died for nothing. We have to make sure the people who murdered them pay."

"Who? The goddamn government?! You wanna take on Washington...you big hero?"

His voice was hard as Leon spat, "Why not!? Someone has to try! I won't just run and hide, Jill. I can't...I gave my word that I'd serve and protect. I meant it. I still mean it. I have to keep trying. I have to."

Carlos, leaning on the wall, broke the stalemate of glaring as he lamented, "...big hero is about right. You think one man can rail against injustice here?"

Leon shrugged and let out a harsh bark of laughter, "Why not? It's not the first time the underdog has had his day right? You don't have to keep fighting with me, Jill, but I'm not going to let you give up either. You will survive this...if I have to drag you kicking and screaming to safety."

Jill gave him a filthy look, "You think you can bully me into wanting to live?"

"No. I think I can keep on believing in you until you do."

Damn him.

Her heart throbbed. Damn him. He was such an idealist. What would it take to lose hope for him? He was standing there convinced good would win. He just was. She hated him...because she didn't hate him at all. She wasn't sure she believed in good over evil, not anymore. She'd seen too much. She knew too much.

She couldn't believe they'd win...but she could believe in Leon Kennedy.

Damn him...he made it easy to want to believe.

So? She did the one thing she could to support that hope...she nodded. And then? She simply said, "So...let's kill that son of a bitch...and make sure the people who made him join him in hell."

Carlos hooted. Leon nodded.

Jill? She just tried to hold onto that kernel of belief that was trying to grow inside of her that had Leon's face all over it.


	9. Dawn9

**Gone by Dawn**

* * *

**Part One:**

**-Downfall-**

* * *

**Chapter 9: Play Dead**

* * *

**Raccoon City**

* * *

The fear ate at the center of her throat. She watched it come - the smoking, stinking, lumbering mess of what it had once been - no less frightening now than when it had first found her and attempted to take her life. It tracked her as she backed up, backed up, and prayed to whatever forces might guide her to survive that she find just a little luck at the bottom of a pit of failure.

And then? She ran.

It chased her, roaring. Was it Billy Coen? Was it the convict Rebecca had once attempted to liberate from unfair imprisonment? It didn't matter anymore. It was here. It was coming. The time to be still was over.

She'd gone to the one place she knew it would find her.

In her old apartment, she'd taken a handful of minutes to observe her board of photos she'd placed for those she'd saved, those she'd lost, those she'd attempted to exonerate. She pocketed a picture of Olivia and the children she'd lost. She pocketed a picture of all of them in S.T.A.R.S. by the helicopter Chris had flown that morning for training in the Arklay Mountains. She took a photo of her mother, she grabbed a handful of papers from her desk and folded them to tuck them into her bra. She tried, like hell, to take anything she could from that two-room dump that had been her home for so long.

She washed her face and waited. She found a beer in the fridge and cracked it, throwing back gulps to take the edge off. She counted the minutes.

And then she heard the front door almost ripped from its hinges.

"STARZZZZZ!"

Her brief respite was over.

She fled out the balcony window and over the fire escape. She heard it coming and found wings on her feet. She was racing down a hallway on a lower floor when a doorway was tossed open and another person collided with her in the middle of her mad dash. They both stumbled, they both caught the other before they fell, and they both exclaimed simultaneously, "You!?"

Rebecca shouted, "RUN!"

No time to wonder what Rebecca was doing back in the apartment building where most of the S.T.A.R.S. had lived. Likely she was looking for her own absolution of memories among the mess. They both ran for it, the Nemesis giving them pause as he reached above his head and ripped a chunk of the ceiling down to use against them like a mallet. Whack a S.T.A.R.S. apparently, with him squashing them into nothing on the cool tile.

Jill shoved into a random apartment as Rebecca narrowly missed death by a breath. The wall shook. The Nemesis roared again.

They raced through the mess toward the far fire escape as Rebecca shouted, "...I tried!"

Jill knew what she meant. She'd tried to reach whoever was inside of the monster and failed. It was hopeless. Whatever brainwashing they'd done, there was nothing left of anything human in the thing that pursued them. Who he'd been no longer mattered.

Metal clanged as Jill grabbed the ladder and all but threw the girl down it. Rebecca nearly fell but was swift, whatever training Wesker had given her kicking in to help her survive when she might have died screaming like most of the city. After all, the youngest of them had lived through the train and the mansion without more than her wits and possibly the man who chased them now.

Jill reached the end of the ladder and leaped free. They ran for the far side of the street and a tentacle looped at her ankle. She grabbed for Rebecca, narrowly missed her outstretched hands, and went to her hands and knees on the pavement. Rebecca shouted, "NO!"

Jill was jerked backward toward the building they'd left behind fighting for her life. She grabbed her knife and slashed. She shouted and struggled. The pavement hurt her hands as she grabbed at it desperately trying to slow the dragging death that waited for her.

Another tentacle looped around her thigh. It inched over her abdomen and crept along her torso. She thought - _this is it. Dead like some bad hentai movie. Dead giving the worst blow job in the world. _

It looped around her throat and tickled at her lips. She screamed so loud she was afraid of her own shout. The abject terror in that yell was echoed in Rebecca's one final attempt to save her, "BILLY! PLEASE STOP!"

The weird thing? The tentacle at her lips stopped. It paused. Jill jabbed the knife into it so hard it burst with blood all over her face. It released her throat, it snaked away in pain, and the one at her ankle tossed her toward Rebecca. The girl caught her as best she could.

They didn't wait. They didn't stop. They ran for the clock tower.

Neither said anything as they ran. Jill felt the wet on her face and wasn't sure what was tears and what was blood now. She didn't care. She'd been crying as it attempted to kill her. She'd been crying.

She didn't want to die.

The truth of that assertion propelled her forward. She didn't really have hope. She'd given up on faith...but she didn't want to die. She wanted to live. The instinct drove her up the stairs in the clock tower with a mad survivor's speed. They burst out onto the roof to find Leon and Carlos frozen with their hands up and a man with a gun waiting for them.

He shouted, "STOP THERE!"

Jill had a flicker of memory from the university and realized she was looking into the face of the man who'd killed Annette.

He commanded again, "Drop your weapon!"

Jill realized that Rebecca was holding a weapon on him in turn. Surprised, she instructed, "Bec...drop it."

To which Rebecca replied, "No! He'll kill us anyway...won't you, Nicholai?"

The man, Nicholai, laughed happily. "You remembered! I'm thrilled. I nearly had you, you little firey sprite, at the RPD but you are more wily than you look. "

Carlos beckoned, "Why are you doing this!?"

Nicholai laughed again, "Why else? They're paying me a shit ton of Den'gi."

Likely, he was talking about money. What else? Money was the great equalizer. It was what made men into monsters and made monsters into gods. It was what propelled people to great heights of feats of things they'd never succeed without the motivation of it. It had created a nightmare in a city that had been home to good people who'd died screaming.

Jill didn't care about the why anymore. She didn't care about the reasons. She was done. She was finished. She was beyond caring. She instructed, quietly, "Kill him."

Rebecca jerked a little at the command. Carlos's mouth twitched with good humor. Leon shook his head, keeping his gaze on Nicholai, "We need him alive. The things he knows. He could validate everything. We need to turn him in."

Damn boy scout. He was too good. He was also right. They needed that son of a bitch alive. It was how they proved to the world what had happened here. Rebecca shouted, "You'll die here if you don't give up! We all will! Do you think you'll survive a bomb!?"

Nicholai shrugged, "I have this helicopter. I have this!" He lifted his hand to show a glimmering tube of red. His grin was wide and happy. "This is what you were there for, isn't it, _cyka?"_

Jill spit, "Daylight."

And he laughed. "Yes. I have it. It's all I need. My partner...she's managed to escape with more. She has what we need for a set. I don't need any of you alive. I think...we'll just wait for your friend to arrive and finish you off."

The roar that answered that statement was coming. The Nemesis. He was too close. They'd never escape if they didn't move...now!

Carlos murmured, "...shoot him in the fucking leg."

A gun went off in answer. Whose? It was pandemonium. Carlos was thrown backward to the roof. Rebecca didn't waver, bless her, but she shouted in surprise. Nicholai smacked into the helicopter and grabbed for his thigh with one hand. He started to lift his weapon again and Leon tackled him instead.

In that moment, Jill realized someone had done just what Carlos had offered. Someone had shot Nicholai in the leg. Rebecca!?

But the girl cried, "NO!"

Not Rebecca, the rookie. The rookie had drawn down from the hip like Wyatt Earp and shot like a hero. He didn't miss. He'd hit his target. It was impressive as hell given their circumstances.

Rebecca dropped to check on Carlos, Jill grabbed her gun in the fray, and she spun around to find Leon struggling to hold Nicholai in a grip as he shouted, "Is he alive!?"

Jill saw Nicholai reach for a knife on his hip as Leon divested him of his gun and she commanded, "IDIOT - FREEZE!"

Nicholai went still, fuming with rage. Jill instructed, "Leon...get him on the chopper! Carlos?"

On the ground, groaning, Carlos answered gruffly, "...thank god for vests."

Rebecca was helping him to his feet. She started to speak and the roar from the Nemesis propelled them all toward the chopper instead. Jill kept her gun on Nicholai as Leon threw him into the chopper. She covered while his hands were bound with a repelling line. Leon bound his feet as well as Carlos leaped into the pilot's seat and called, "Get the launcher...hurry!"

JIll handed the gun to Rebecca and grabbed for the thing on the floor. She took the rocket from the backpack Leon tossed her and loaded it. The roof was suddenly alive with pursuit. Nemesis raced toward them and the whole roof shook with his steps.

Jill went to one knee, Carlos started the chopper blades which whipped and caused a tornado of air to spin around them. The chopper started its ascent and the Nemesis threw a tentacle out to loop it around the rails beneath them. The chopper dipped, Rebecca shouted in fear, and Jill muttered, "...not this time...you stupid mother fucker."

Quietly, Leon encouraged, "...do it."

She pulled the trigger. The thing nearly set her on her ass with the force of release. The rocket zipped. The tentacle released and the Nemesis roared. Rebecca whispered, "I'm so sorry, Billy."

The chopper rose. The impact was enough to force it up with a bump as if they'd hit turbulence. Carlos fought for control as the fire burped into the sky. Jill waited, watching to see if they'd turned their pursuer into chunks.

He collapsed to the roof with only half his torso. The head and shoulder on his right side were completely obliterated. Her heart seized. The chopper lifted and the dawn broke, red, pink, white and pretty over the blistered horizon.

Just a moment to stare at the beauty of a world with hope before a sound drew her attention. A zip almost like lips whistling a high note. A whoosh of noise and activity. She watched, they all watched, in abject horror as the bombs started. A stream of them first - boom, boom, boom, boom. The city erupted. She could hear the screaming down below. Could she? Did she? Was she hallucinating the screaming?

Maybe.

It was so hard to tell what was real anymore.

The fire was bright in the burning red sky. They left it behind before the big one. They were moments ahead of it. It turned the world white and set off alarms on the console of the chopper. Rebecca grabbed to hold on. Leon caught the back of Jill's vest to keep her there.

And then?

Silence.

The only noise that punctuated it was the whomp of helicopter blades. The smell of gasoline and death was gone. The sky smelled clear and looked beautiful. Raccoon City was burning behind them.

But there was nothing now before them but a new day.

* * *

Nicholai was totally mum when Carlos set the chopper down a few hours later in a field outside of Wombat Junction. They were hundreds of miles from the dead now. They were in the clear for the moment.

Now, they just needed a plan for what came next.

In the field, Rebecca was doing her best to use the first aid kit on the helicopter to treat Carlos's wounded shoulder. Nicholai was secured to a tree. Leon and Jill were using the stream to do their best to clean up.

Jill carefully set her pictures on the ground with her boots. She shed her vest and padded barefoot to the water to splash her face and arms and attempt to remove the blood. Her gritty eyes told her she was beyond exhausted. When had she really slept last?

She'd dozed on Leon's shoulder in the city, but it was quickly turning to a desperate need to rest. She let the cold water invigorate her a little as she heard him exclaim behind her, "...Chris?"

Surprised, she turned to find him holding her picture of the S.T.A.R.S. alpha team. He lifted it toward her, "_This _is your Chris?"

She tilted her head, "Chris Redfield. Why?"

"...I grew up three hours down from the Redfields."

They held gazes as that settled in. He nodded, watching her blank-faced shock, "Yeah. When their parents died, they moved away...I think I was...fourteen? Claire was twelve." He turned the photo back to look at it again, "...Chris was convinced I was going to start sniffing around. He never really liked me."

Jill kept her gaze on him. In a completely objective sense, he was gorgeous. There was no getting around that. She wondered what Chris would say now about a brave cop who looked like a model wanting to marry his sister. He'd probably start joking about continuing the "bloodline" like he was always doing before things had fallen apart. She'd thought, for about five seconds, that she might be the person who helped him do that. She'd thought, maybe, they'd get together and have children one day.

But Chris was too focused on the job. Things had fallen apart. There was no time for romance. So...nothing had ever come of it.

What would he say to a hero cop giving him little red-headed nieces and nephews?

Aloud, Jill told him, "He'd like you."

She turned toward the water again. She knelt, cleaning her face. Frozen there, Leon stared at her back. Just that simple - _he'd like you. _What kind of man had Chris Redfield become? He'd been a bit of an arrogant jackass when they'd been growing up. He'd been the best of the best at almost everything. His parents had doted on him. Claire had been the bad seed in a way - rebellious, opinionated, tough, and somehow soft underneath the bravado. She'd been annoyed to be caught playing dolls one day like it made her weak somehow.

He'd talked to her a few times since they'd become wards of the state after their parent's death. He knew Chris had adopted her the day he'd turned 18 and brought her to live with him in Raccoon City. He knew she'd gone to college the year before out of state.

Had she been in Raccoon when it had all fallen apart?

The idea was terrifying.

"...what happened to Claire?"

Jill turned her head over her shoulder, "She went to Penn State. Chris got in touch before he went into hiding. He told her he was doing some work out of town. I made sure to check on her once a week. Last time I checked, she was sitting in her dorm room pissed off about chemistry."

Safe.

She'd been safe.

Leon pictured her freckled face at twelve years old. She'd been adorable. She'd been, probably, his best friend in those days. He'd never really thought of her like anything more than a sister, but it might have been something if she'd stayed. He knew she'd grown up beautiful. He remembered seeing a picture of her at a rally for women's rights last fall.

He was intensely glad she was safe. He wasn't sure how he'd have felt to find out she'd been in that city when it burned. He turned his attention to Jill again, "Where is Chris?"

Jill sighed heavily, "Last time I heard, Europe. Where? I don't know exactly. We had a plan to meet in London. I'm going to try to get there."

Leon nodded and turned a little, "I'm going to go back to Texas. I need to check on my fam-"

"You can't." Jill rose and shook her head, turning to face him, "You can't ever go back there."

He froze, eyes wide. She shook her head again, earnestly, "Leon...they'll be watching. They know. Remember the cameras around the city? Annette might have been the mastermind...or she might have been a pawn...but they were watching. They know about you. They will stake out your family and wait for you to come back."

He shook his head in denial. "No. Why? I'm just a cop who survived. I'm nobody. Why? It makes no sense."

"...it makes all the sense in the world." She told him with sympathy. She even touched his arm to get the point home, "You go there...you risk them."

"...what if I'm risking them by staying away?" He shook his head again, "What if they torture them or something trying to find me?"

Jill rubbed his arm a little, "It won't get to that. They didn't do anything to our families after the Spencer Mansion. They lay low. They don't want the attention of it now...especially after Raccoon. They won't touch your family...unless you give them a reason."

She considered and added, "I'm so sorry."

Leon took a sharp breath. He closed his eyes for a moment before he stated, "So I just let them think I died in that city?"

She squeezed his arm once, "...I'm sorry, but yes. It's for the best. Maybe we can let them know you're alive later, but for now...it's better to be dead."

He stared at the horizon for a long moment before he whispered, "So...maybe you're not the only one who's lost everything now, huh?"

He turned away and headed up the ridge to the field. Jill stood still for a moment watching him go. Her sympathy swelled for him. She wanted to comfort him but what comfort was there to give?

They were lost now. There was nowhere they could go that wasn't laced with fear. Were they being followed? Where did they go? What did they do with Nicholai? The questions were limitless.

She needed to get in touch with Barry. She knew he had connections in the FBI. That was a start.

They'd survived the worst of it. They'd left the Nemesis to burn in that city. They were free.

The lie of it radiated in her blood.

The nightmare was only just beginning.


	10. Dawn 10

**Gone by Dawn**

* * *

**Part One:**

**-Downfall-**

* * *

**Chapter 10: No Rest for the Weary**

* * *

**Wombat Junction**

* * *

Honestly, she'd expected to be sorer. She'd been tossed around like a play toy more than once in the last day. She had some bruising and some superficial wounds on her body that should have been more painful. Maybe the adrenaline still needed to wear off before she'd feel it.

The first gush of hot water felt like heaven. Jill stood there in the spray of it until half of the fear, the fatigue, the feeling of failure, and guilt of surviving coupled with simple joy and made a mess in her guts. The motel on the side of the highway in Wombat Junction was little more than a flophouse. A year ago it wouldn't have even been worth the thirty dollars a night they wanted for the ugly little room.

Now? Now it was like an overnight stay in the Ritz Carlton. It was incredible. It felt like she was about to sleep in silk sheets hand woven into perfection. Between them, in cash they'd had less than a couple hundred dollars, but the good news was it was enough to get a couple of rooms and make a phone call. She tried Barry's house first and his wife directed her to his work number. Barry, it seemed, had found his way into a security job after leaving Raccoon City. He was laying low somewhere in Minnesota. Jill's call had elicited both fear and joy at her being safe.

He'd easily told her he'd get in touch with his contact at the FBI and to hold down the fort until the next morning. As it stood, Leon and Carlos were sharing a room with Nicholai and she was occupying one with Rebecca for the night. They'd had to wait until dark to sneak Nicholai in with his hands bound. She was sorry the men were acting as guards. She'd offered to take over the watch, but Carlos had laughed and sent her away.

His words were, "Honey, I've got the feeling you've been awake a helluva lot longer than me. I can babysit this sack of shit, I promise you."

So, she and Rebecca had retired to their room and traded off in the shower. Rebecca was currently sound asleep on her full bed as Jill emerged wrapped in a towel. Her wet hair was streaming on her shoulders but it didn't matter. She felt incredible. She knew Rebecca was naked beneath the sheets. They were both trying to avoid putting on their filthy clothes.

A soft knock on the door had her eyeballing the person waiting there. After a moment, she opened it a little to find Leon waiting with a bundle of clothing in his arms. He looked tired but fresh himself. A white t-shirt and jeans made a nice frame for that handsome face of his. It was somehow startling without his hair in the way. Wet, he'd peeled it back from his forehead and gave the impression of it being short and close to the scalp.

"Hey."

Jill leaned a little on the frame and whispered, "...hey yourself. Feeling ok? Whatcha got there?"

He offered her the bundle, "A little soreness, but mostly I'm just relieved it's over. Thought you might want something clean."

She took the proffered bundle and didn't smirk as she became aware of his gaze flicking to her breasts tucked tightly into the white towel she wore. "Thanks. Where'd you get it?"

He used his head to gesture at the office. "Lost and found box was full of stuff left behind by families. The clerk was sleeping at the desk and didn't even notice when I raided it. It'll all be big on you both, but it's clean."

Jill smiled softly. "I don't care at this point if it's a garbage bag. Anything not soaked in blood is a win."

Leon laughed a little. "...how's she doing?"

Jill glanced over her shoulder at the sleeping form behind her. "She's ok. She's snoring, so I'd say she's doing better than me. How's Nicholai?"

Leon shrugged, "Sleeping. He hasn't said a word. Not a taunt, not a peep. He just stares at us. It's kinda creepy."

"He'll talk. Barry said the agent he called will be here about nine tomorrow. After that, it's just a matter of spilling the beans and handing over the bastard."

"Yeah." Leon shifted a little on his feet, "What's your plan for after all this?"

She held up a finger in a "one-second" gesture and closed the door in his face. Surprised, he blinked and considered knocking but she opened it again after a handful of minutes and emerged in the big blue t-shirt that had been amongst the clothing. It came to her knees and covered all the parts worth staring at, but he was almost relieved about that. He'd been trying not to look at her cleavage since she'd opened the door.

It wasn't that he was interested, not really, but he liked the distraction. Thinking about her boobs made it easier to erase blood from behind his eyes. He wondered if he'd even sleep tonight. It wasn't likely.

Jill closed the door quietly behind her and leaned on it. "I didn't want to wake her up."

Leon nodded.

"...I need to find Chris. That was always the plan. If he's in London, I need to get there." She watched him nod and blurted, "I'd like you to go with me."

There. It was out. It was between them. Surprised, his brows arched as she rushed into the silence, "I think we make a half-decent team. I know you don't really have anywhere else to go...so..."

She shrugged. He considered her. He finally spoke, voice laced with emotion, "...maybe I should join the FBI or something."

Jill shrugged in response, "Sure...sure. Joining the government...always an option. That's the good fight, right? Probably the smart move."

Leon shifted on his feet, "...I don't want you out there alone though."

Her lips pursed. She gave him a long look. "...I can take care of myself, Leon, honestly. It's ok."

"I know that...it's-I just..." He huffed out a breath in frustration, "I want to go with you, ok? I'll go. I want to...stay out of the chains that come with government work. If I join up...they kinda own me, ya know? I'll be bound by oaths and rules..."

He leaned on the wall beside her with his arms crossed. She kept her gaze on him while he rambled out his thoughts, "I was already bound when I took on being a cop. I believed in that, ya know? I still do...but I think I can do more without the eyes of Uncle Sam watching me. I think I can really...I don't know. It's stupid to say it...but I think maybe we can find out more without the pressure of a boss."

Jill nodded. She huffed out a long breath. "Ok. So we go. You got like...a thousand dollars and a passport? We're gonna need that to get to London."

He laughed and bumped the back of his head against the wall. "Damnit. No breaks. No rest for the weary, right?"

She smiled. "Maybe one." She patted his arm and leaned away from the door, "Get some sleep. We'll work it out tomorrow."

He pushed off the wall to walk back toward his room. When he was halfway there, Jill called, "Leon?"

He stopped, turning around, and paced backward as she finished, "...thanks."

The lights of the motel were bright on the puddles of water from the rain around him. The sounds of the highway made a somehow comforting back drop. Life, it seemed, went on all around them. They'd lived. They were here. They'd made it.

How many had died in that city?

How many were still dying?

Jill closed her eyes and let the sounds of life around her soothe away some of the pain as Leon answered, "...just doing my job, ma'am."

She laughed. She shook her head. He winked at her. She hesitated and invited, "If you find you can't sleep...I'm here...ok?"

He smiled softly. "Same goes. Any time."

She nodded and opened the door behind her. She went in backward watching him go. She wanted, somehow, to ask him to stay. She felt...what? Better with him there. She felt safer or something. Stupid, but survival together would do that to you. She had a bit of a tendency to depend on a partner, she knew that. She'd done the same in the Spencer Mansion with Chris.

Jill climbed into bed and lay beneath the sheets watching the lights from the motel on the window beside her. Headlights from the passing cars cast yellow across her tired face. She didn't think she'd sleep.

She couldn't.

Her mind raced madly.

There was no way she'd rest.

She closed her eyes anyway just because it helped take the sting out of them. She woke up sweating and gasping. Her hands grabbed for her throat to free it from the tentacle there.

But she was safe.

She was fine.

She was bruised and exhausted, but she was fine. She eased up in the bed. Rebecca still slept. The light in the window signaled it was barely dawn. She'd gotten a few good hours of rest.

A glance at the clock on the nightstand between them told her it was just past five in the morning. Six hours of sleep. It was pretty good considering she'd been convinced she'd not rest for a moment. She hadn't slept that long in months.

She pulled on the sweatpants from the pile of stuff Leon had brought. She slipped out the door and crossed the short walkway to the room where Carlos and Leon slept guarding Nicholai. She peeked in the window to find Carlos awake with his weapon on the alert prisoner.

Leon wasn't in the room. She started to knock and a voice called, "...hey!"

She turned to find him crossing the parking lot with coffee in his hands. He offered her one and she offered him a gush of gratitude, "...my hero."

He chuckled a little. They both sipped and she wondered, "Any chance you got a cigarette in there?"

He offered the bag to her and she sighed with regret, "Probably better to quit anyway. That shit'll kill me."

The bag had a couple of donuts though. She took one, bit in, and nearly fainted on the ground with happiness. "Carbs, fat, and sugar. Who knew it would taste so good?"

Leon answered, "I donut know."

She stopped eating and gave him a long look. He flushed a little, charming her, and remarked, "My puns suffer when I'm tired."

Jill watched him take a bite from his own donut. The flaky dough got caught in the little hairs above his lip. Without thinking, her free hand shifted over to sweep it away with her thumb. It was an unconsciously intimate gesture.

It made them both freeze.

He murmured, quietly, "...thanks."

"...sure." She dropped her hand, embarrassed by the display. She wasn't ordinarily a touchy person. It was weird to feel the urge of it. Apparently, she wanted a hug too. Which was completely outside of her wheelhouse of emotions. She simply wasn't a woman who ran on things like that.

Quietly, she offered, "...we should go inside and give Carlos a break, right?"

Leon cleared his throat, "Right. He's been up for about an hour. Nicholai was just sitting there watching us sleep apparently. Fucking creeper."

Jill started forward. She shook her head as she walked. Stupid. It was stupid to get attached to anyone. People died. People fled. People lied. She knew this. She knew it all. What was she doing caring about this kid?

She took over the watch on Nicholai while Carlos went outside to smoke and eat a donut. She tried to get him to talk. She taunted. She offered incentives. She stared back at him. Finally, he spoke, "...show me your titties and I will talk."

Then? She laughed. Leon, sitting on the other bed, spat, "...I should kick your fucking teeth in."

Jill lifted her hand at him, "It's fine. Really. He's trying to get one of us to hit him now. Why? Rebecca bound your wounded leg. You got that being taken into custody. You're gonna be just fine when we hand you over. You think you can provoke one of us to kill you before that happens?"

Nicholai smiled widely, "No. I want to see American titties. Are they like Russian titties? Russian women are the most beautiful in the world. I have been with more than I can remember...I have never been with an American bitch. Prove me wrong. Show me American beauty."

Jill rolled her eyes. She walked close to him, leaned down, and cooed, "...I'll show you something beautiful."

His eyes sparked happily. She put her hand on his thigh...and squeezed. He shouted in rage and pain. His leg jerked like he'd kick her. She grabbed his groin and carefully squeezed his balls. His eyes flashed again in fear as she spoke between her teeth, "I could rip these off, you traitorous turd, and no one would bat an eye. You think we did you a favor saving your life back there? People like you are the reason that goddamn city burned. You're alive because of that guy over there. He's more magnanimous than me. He saw the wisdom in keeping your ass alive."

She squeezed his balls and had his nostrils flaring with fear. "You don't need balls to talk, you piece of shit. Start now, before I make you sing soprano."

He opened his mouth and Carlos opened the door to the room, "Jill? Your agent is earl-"

He paused. His brows arched. His mouth twitched in amusement. "...well well...I missed the party apparently."

Jill let go of Nicholai and leaned away. She spit quietly, "Saved by the...balls, huh?"

Leon cleared his throat on a short laugh. Carlos sighed, "Now I'm sad that agent is here. I'd like to see what comes next."

Leon remarked, "She ripped off his nuts, we both know it wouldn't be Nicky."

Nicholai spat, "You think you are so clever. You have me, but the victory is hollow. She has the virus. She took the truth. You have nothing."

Leon lifted the sample of Daylight from the nightstand. "We have this and you. I think we're doing ok."

Nicholai tilted his head at Jill, "She's infected. I can see it in her eyes. The fever sets in first. How long ago, princess? How long do you have? Hours? Days? You'll hand over your only hope to survive. My suggestion..." The sounds from the parking lot said the Feds were coming to the room, "Fuck the world...save yourself. You turn that over...you'll be dead before you can save another soul."

Jill felt Leon glance at her. She shook her head and backed away, "Maybe so, you piece of shit, but at least I'll be able to know you're rotting in a cage-like the animal you are."

Nicholai gave her a pitying look, "You are worse than a fool, you're a believer. Don't you see? Can't you figure it out? Giving me over is making me nothing more than a scape goat. They will use me, the same as I used you. They will make me their fall guy. You have just given them an excuse. That's all you've done by dragging me here...you've given them a reason for war."

Jill furrowed her brow, "What shit are you spouting now?"

Nicholai spit on the floor at her feet, "American women...beautiful and stupid. You will never find the truth...it will die with me. But the lies they tell...those will chase you for the rest of your life...the lies you protect...they are your real nemesis now."

The door opened and Rebecca entered with two FBI agents.

Things went quickly after that. They took Nicholai into custody. They took the sample of Daylight. They offered to bring Rebecca back to the closest office with them and she agreed, telling Leon and Jill, "I'm going to get them working on another vaccine. Don't give up. If things get...if you start to feel..." She paused and finished, "Another transfusion might help."

Leon nodded as Rebecca urged, "Although we could use you...we really could. You have antibodies to the virus...you'd make a helluva weapon against it."

Leon shook his head, "I won't become a test subject, Rebecca. I can't. I need to be out here knowing I'm doing something to help."

She nodded. She turned to Carlos and encouraged, "How about you? You wanna escort a lady to safety?"

He affected a fake latin accent and responded, "Of course...all the ladies love dee accent."

Jill rolled her eyes. Rebecca chuckled lightly. Carlos told them, "I'll make sure she gets somewhere to help. I'm a hired gun. I'm not sure how much help I'd be out there playing detective. You need a good shot, you call me."

Leon shook his hand and asked, "You find a way to get us passports, you'll prove yourself wrong."

To this, Carlos responded, "Good thing I know a guy then huh? How do you think you make it as a merc? You gotta know the right people to fake a few I.D.s. Give me a couple days."

Jill accepted some cash from the FBI agent named Lewis. He told her the Bureau was going to pay for them to stay a few more nights in the motel at Barry's request. They both gave accountings on what had happened and did their part to get the truth out there, for all the good it would do.

When they were alone in the parking lot, Jill finally filled the silence, "So now what?"

Leon glanced at her where she stood in the dying light of the day. The rain had started, misting them where they lingered. They should get going on locating Chris. They should work toward finding Ada Wong who'd clearly been in collusion with Nicholai. They should start finding answers.

The FBI was aware. They'd be making their own inquiries soon enough. What could two people do that a whole bureau couldn't?

The little bar across the road beckoned. He arched his brows and invited, "...how about a drink?"

Seemed there was no time like the present to just let go.

* * *

_The voice on the other end of the line was laced with fear, "...we think he failed."_

_The silence was deafening. The voice tried again, stuttering a little, "H-he might-he might be in...custody, sir. He might be in custody."_

_The other person on the line finally spoke, "...take care of it. I want Redfield dead for this. You understand me? If he was there...if he was the reason...I want him dead and in the ground. Lure him out. Now."_

_"S-sir? How, sir?"_

_"Use the girl. She's his weakness. Lure him out...the rats will follow."_

_"The cop appears to have escaped too. The rookie? Should we corral his family?"_

_"Forget the rookie. He's nothing. I want the rest of the S.T.A.R.S. before winter. Do you hear me? Bury the truth. Bury it or burn with that city. Do we have an understanding?"_

_"...sir...it's never been more clear."_

_"Good. The Family awaits your loyalty."_

_There was no more time for games. It was time to bury the truth with the bodies of the dead. It was time to finish what they'd started in Raccoon. At all costs, Rockfort Island needed to succeed._

_And it was about to get a few new players in an already dangerous game._


	11. Dawn11

**Gone by Dawn**

* * *

**Part Two:**

**-Underdog-**

* * *

**Chapter 11: New Dawn**

* * *

**Wombat Junction**

* * *

They'd lived. They'd made it. What harm was there in just taking a minute to remember that? Jill was likely going to need a transfusion soon. They should really get somewhere and do it.

Instead?

They took a seat at the bar in a place called The Rat Rodeo and ordered a couple of beers. The first beers were awkward. They sat beside each other and were mostly quiet. The second went down a little smoother.

By the third, they were finally talking. They talked about Chris. They talked about Claire. Jill talked about her time in Delta and her time in S.T.A.R.S. He talked about the academy and third grade where he saw his first girl in a pair of panties. He talked about growing up in Texas and she mentioned moving around a lot.

They took a little while to just exist companionably. It felt good, really good, to be normal. They pretended they didn't have the world on their shoulders.

They discussed why neither of them was hurting as they should be. It was odd, to say the least, that each wasn't down for the count in pain. Honestly, besides some bruising, they both felt pretty good physically. Jill wondered, not for the first time if the virus in her blood was healing her. She wondered, not for the first time if Leon's blood had something else going for it.

He should have gone with Rebecca and gotten tested. He might have all the answers in the world right there in his DNA...however? She was glad he'd stayed behind.

Jill saw him lift his hand for another round and encouraged, "Forget the beer...whiskey. Straight up."

Leon stuck to beer. She switched to the hard stuff. She was a little woozy when he guided her away from the bar. She was loose and limber and not thinking about blood for the first time in days. It felt too good to just _be._

At the door to her room, he told her, "Tomorrow we start trying to find answers."

Jill sighed loudly, "...right. Back to being grown ups."

He laughed and opened her door for her. She slid past him as he lamented, "Adulting sucks."

Jill paused. She considered. If this was their only night of stupid behavior...if this was it...the last chance, the last hurrah, the last moment...she was just drunk enough to figure - fuck it all- and might as well go down swinging.

He started to tell her, "Burton seems like a good contact. Maybe he knows somewhere we can go to get a little trai-"

Her mouth pressed wetly against his. Her hand curled in his shirt. She pressed him back against the jamb of the door and went to her tiptoes. He was frozen like she'd shot him with a tranquilizer dart.

Cooing a little, she invited, "Maybe we adult tomorrow. Leon?"

"...yeah." His voice was gruff and hoarse. It charmed her as she turned and dragged him toward her into the room.

"Stop thinking so hard."

He followed her into the room. She closed the door with her foot behind him and pressed him against it. His head dipped and hers came up. It was a slippery kiss that felt almost funny somehow.

He seemed unsure of himself as he put his tongue between her lips and brushed it against hers. Jill mewed softly and reached for his pants. Her hand skimmed over him in those jeans and he jumped as if a snake had bitten him.

Amused, excited, Jill whispered, "That hurt?"

He shook his head. He bent down and scooped behind her thighs. She was hoisted up around his front as he walked them toward the bed. Jill shivered a little, kissing him from above now. She felt him bump into the bed and drop her on it. No great skill in this rookie, she thought as she walked on her knees across the bed to reach for him again. He was as young as he was innocent.

She let him kiss down her neck and slid her hands around his back and down into his pants. He jerked as she cupped his butt and rubbed him against her like a pervert. After a few moments of wet kissing, she realized he wasn't groping her. Surprised, she leaned back to look at his face.

His eyes were closed and he had the most adorably determined look on his face. Testing, Jill slid her hand around his hip and slid her fingers against his groin toward his dick. She stroked her fingers over the smooth head of him. It wept tears of need against her fingers that made her breath pant harder. She was going to do this. She was going to enjoy it. She was going to feel alive for the first time in months.

She was just drunk enough to believe that. Him? He wasn't. He grunted. He mashed their mouths together in a way that surprised them both. His breath came fast and hard. She invited, voice breathy, "...you can touch me back."

Right. He could. He could do that. She wanted it. He wanted it. They'd both enjoy it. Right?

Right?

...right?

He froze. He let go of her and tugged her hand from his pants. He was shaking like he had a fever. It flattered her to see the stain of blood on his cheeks in the dim light.

He was so nervous in the low light from the bathroom. Trembling, Jill murmured, "What? What's wrong?"

He held her still, shook his head, and told her, "...I can't. I'm sorry. I haven't..." He shook his head again, "I don't want to-not like this. I'm sorry."

He let go of her and backed toward the door. He tripped once, stumbled, and she nearly offered a hand to help him keep from falling. He was running from her like she was on fire.

His hand gripped the knob on the door, "...sorry. I'll-I'm...tomorrow. I'll see you tomorrow. Goodnight, Jill."

The door closed.

Jill was still kneeling on the bed blinking. What kind of man said no to a willing woman like that? Sure, her experience was limited. She'd been to bed with three men in her twenty-four years. One in high school. One while she was serving in the military and a cheating boyfriend in Raccoon she'd dumped before she'd stepped into the Spencer Mansion...but what kind of man said no?

The lump in his pants said he'd wanted her. She knew he wasn't gay based on that bulge. So what had stopped him?

He hadn't groped. He hadn't thrown her down to dry hump her. He'd touched her with some kind of sweetness she'd found endearing as all hell. She'd offered her body and he'd turned her down but somehow...she wasn't insulted.

What had stopped him?

She laid back on the bed as the world spun. Was it because she was drunk? She was, but she'd been worse off. She still had enough faculties present to know she'd been doing it. Maybe he was a guy who didn't nail a drunk chic out of chivalry.

He did seem the type. _Not like this - _he'd said. Sadly for them both, she wouldn't offer again. She didn't offer sex like that. She'd been rejected. He wanted to keep things on a level playing field obviously. He was wise.

Sex would have just screwed things up anyway.

Jill let her eyes close. He'd just saved them both a big mistake. She was grateful for it even if her body let her know she was also hot for it. She'd wanted the sex to drown out the misery.

She'd wanted the sex to drown out the pain.

Instead, she lay in the dark and wondered what Leon Kennedy did to deal with his completely unaware that he was in his own room rubbing one out in the shower thinking of her.

It wasn't misguided chivalry at all. It was good old fashioned virginity. He'd dated girls but he'd never bedded them. His parents had raised him to believe you bedded a girl, you married her. He couldn't shake years of Catholic guilt just because he wanted to rip off her pants and fuck away the pain.

So...he jerked off and let the anger get him. Anger was good. He'd rather be mad at himself than mired in misery over what they'd survived. Fucking would have been a good way to forget it for a night.

He'd had four beers. He was loose. He could have blamed the alcohol for his awkward touches. As it stood, he was going to let her handle things in the morning however she wanted. He didn't think it was a good idea to get involved.

They had a shit ton of complicated things they needed to work out. Sleeping together was more than just against his faith. It was against his good judgment. He didn't really know her. He wasn't even sure he knew her middle name.

He didn't fuck girls he didn't even love.

There. It was out. He'd said it in his head. He was a good guy after all.

He thought about her breasts in that towel the night before while he finished jerking himself off in the shower. It took away from the horror that was waiting for him the second he got into bed. He thought about her hands on his ass and her thumb brushing the head of his dick.

He didn't fuck her. He'd stopped. He was really trying to be the good man his parents had raised him to be. He was. He'd stayed in that city. He'd helped. He'd done his best. He'd left without using the girl who'd survived with him. He was going to help her track down the man they both knew. He was going to do the right thing here. He was trying.

He pictured her under him, grabbing his ass like a porno while he pounded her into the mattress. Catholic guilt made him grunt as his hand jerked relentlessly on his needy cock. She moaned his name in his head and that was all it took. His balls cinched, his hand clenched, and he gave up the fight. He thought about her mouth on his dick while he came and was too good of a guy not to feel a little ashamed about it.

He'd said no to her. Why did he feel guilty still!? It was the first time in his life he hated himself for being a good guy.

But at least the shame stopped the shadows of the dead from haunting him for just a little while.

* * *

The next morning found her pounding on his door at the crack of dawn. He answered, disgruntled, and still half asleep in just his jeans. She simply bypassed him into the room with an excited look on her face.

"I have to show you something."

Leon grunted, "...coffee."

She shook her head and picked up the remote to his sad television. It was a reporter in a raincoat standing outside a building made almost entirely of glass. She was in mid sentence, "-say that nothing was stolen, but suggest an attempt was made to infiltrate the compound under cover of darkness."

_"What's housed there, Julia?" _Asked the voice off camera.

The pretty female reporter responded, "It's one of Umbrella's major hub of pharmaceutical supply. They speculate that as much thirty percent of the world's antibiotics are stored on the premises."

_"What could an intruder possibly be seeking there?"_

"With the reports about Raccoon City still rolling in, we're starting to suspect it might be protestors looking to make waves. We'll update the story as more information rolls in, Bruce. Back to you at the station."

Jill clicked the television to mute and angled a finger at it. "He's there."

Leon blinked his groggy eyes, "Who...Bruce? How do you know?"

Frustrated, Jill scoffed, "No! _Chris! _He's there...in Paris. He's the intruder."

Leon blinked again, "...wait..what?"

Apparently, she wasn't there to talk about the night before. Apparently, she was there to talk about conspiracy theories or something. It was barely five a.m. He needed coffee before he started waxing intellectual.

"Chris is in Paris. Not London. I guarantee he's the person who tied to break in."

"...mmk. Sure...let's say that's true." Leon started coffee in the little machine that waited. It smelled so good percolating he nearly fell over. "Why is he breaking in to a warehouse in Paris?"

"...why else? It's _Umbrellas! _He knows there's more than just antibiotics stored there. He knows that it's probably being used as a testing site like the Spencer Mansion. He's trying to get proof."

Leon leaned on the wall. Jill noticed the bite he'd suffered was healed up pink and pretty. That pretty much confirmed her suspicions that something else was happening in that body of his. The weird part? Most of her wounds were healed this morning too. The virus in her blood had to be the answer...right? Or was it the transfusion of _his _that had changed the game?

It didn't matter right then because they had bigger fish to fry. Leon answered, "...one guy...alone...breaking into a heavily guarded warehouse just to get proof that would likely be buried deep under the main levels...because he thinks...why not? I can break into a top-secret lab and not get caught. I'm...a former Air Force Captain turned cop. I'm invincible."

Jill gave Leon a long-suffering look. "He's likely been training for something like this. He has an old military buddy that retired and took up working for the government or something training spies. I bet Chris has been studying with him. I bet that's where he's been this whole time. He's there, Leon...I _know _it."

"...hell, Jill..maybe he did this just so you'd see the report and know it was him. Maybe the whole thing was engineered so you'll go running to Paris to help him."

She gave him a look now like he'd finally said something interesting. She blinked. She paced. She considered. And she finally said, "...I think you might be right. He's calling out to me. This is his sign. He's letting me know where he is. He can't call, that's too risky. So this is his way of getting through to me. Of course, it is."

She patted his bare arm as she moved toward the door. "Thanks for the pow-wow...I knew talking it out would get my brain firing on all cylinders..." She grabbed the knob on the door and pulled it open to show the rain beyond.

"Happy to help." Of course, he'd been being sarcastic as all hell, but sure...why not take it seriously?

"...oh, and your flies open. Just an FYI."

She shut the door. He froze and glanced down. Sure enough, there it was. His fly just unzipped and the button undone with a little bit of happy trail just showing in a peekaboo from hell. Great. He'd all but flashed her.

What a way to start his day - conspiracies and peep shows.

Just another day in the freak show that had become his life.

Leon rubbed hard at his face. Hopefully, Carlos would have something for them today. They needed those documents to even attempt to get to Paris. Honestly, he thought chasing after that kind of lead was stupid, but Jill was convinced now. He'd never dissuade her.

So, instead, he needed to set it up so the trip was worth it. What happened if they got to Paris and it was just a coincidence? Where to then? He needed to study up and figure that part out.

The best place to learn things? The library.

He spent the morning in the local one looking at old articles and anything he could find pertaining to Umbrella. Maybe somewhere in unbiased reporting would be some kind of secret lead. Maybe he'd find out there was a secret lab in Utah just waiting for him to uncover and expose it. Maybe he'd learn Umbrella had a back door in Maryland to a playground of monsters just waiting to be destroyed.

He came up empty handed after hours of digging.

Disappointed, he made his way back to the motel. The moment he saw Jill outside his room, he knew something was wrong. She looked panicked. She looked afraid. When he started to ask about it, she shook her head and looked around like they might be being followed.

She gestured to the side of the building and behind it until the dumpster obscured them from passersby.

After a long moment of awkward silence, she finally confessed, "Nicholai was right."

Surprised, Leon's brows shot up into his hair. He twisted his head and shook it, "Excuse me?"

Jill gripped his arm at the elbow, jolting him out of his humor, "I'm serious. He was right. He said they'd use him as a scape goat. He said they'd avert the blame right? You heard him."

"..I did, but what are you saying here?"

"I'm saying the news just broke the story about Raccoon. They're calling it a terrorist attack now. They're saying it was the Russians in collusion with Umbrella to create bioweapons in our own backyard. They're calling it domestic assault. Nicholai? They're claiming he's proof of Russian invasion via espionage."

"...is that wrong? You're saying it's not?"

Jill shook his arm in frustration, "Of course it's not! Russia has nothing to do with it. It's Umbrella! It's Umbrella and someone, somewhere in that administration. Somebody _here _is a terrorist. It's not the Russians. It's American made. They just used Nicholai to take the blame and hoist it on someone else."

They held gazes until Leon murmured, "The FBI is watching us."

She inhaled sharply and nodded, "Yeah. Thank you for following the thought there. Yes. They have to be. They put us up here to make sure we stay in clean sight. They want to be sure we don't make waves. If they find anything, Leon, to use against us..."

She trailed off.

He gave her a tremulous look, "You think they'll frame us too?"

"...oh, yeah. Irons made damn sure we looked like the bad guys after the Spencer Mansion. I think another couple scape goats would suit the bad guys in the shadows just fine."

Leon paced a little bit before he spoke again, "...so what now? Who can we trust here?"

Jill shook her head, "Carlos...I really believe we can trust him. We need him to come through with those ID's so we can try like hell to find Chris. We need to go to ground until we can find a better plan. Chris had that old army buddy that went a little nuts and started living in the woods in Maine somewhere. Chris hid out there with him for awhile during the height of the mess in Raccoon. I think...I think maybe we should get in touch with him and do the same...for a little while."

Leon blew out a hard breath before he nodded, "What about Rebecca? Is she safe?"

"...she's right where they want her, under lock and key in their custody. She's fine, because she's not a threat. She's a genius, Leon, and valuable. They'll use her. They'll wait and see what comes of Nicholai, but I think we can be damn sure they'll start using us to take the blame off Irons in Raccoon. After all...I was already the enemy there. I was already defamed. The disgraced S.T.A.R.S. right?...fuck."

Upset, she leaned on the wall. Her hands covered her face and rubbed. When did it end? Would she spend the rest of her life looking over her shoulder? Was her own government the nemesis after all? Was Nicholai right?

She was, for the first time, sorry Albert Wesker had died in that mansion. He had answers she needed now. He'd tried to explain himself in his own madness before the tyrant had killed him in that lab. She'd desperately wanted to know what he'd taken to his grave with him.

Now she was on her own with a rookie cop beside her and the potential eye of her own government watching her every move. They needed to flee the country. It was the only way this didn't end with one or both of them behind bars.


	12. Dawn12

**Gone by Dawn**

* * *

**Part Two:**

**-Underdog-**

* * *

**Chapter 12: The Fugitives**

* * *

They were out of options now.

How long did they have? He figured even now the wrong forces were moving against them. They couldn't wait on Carlos. They had to go now, this moment, no waiting for the relief of passports and cash.

Feeling the first tremor of that guilt that plagued him, he asked her, "...you know how to hot wire a car?"

They held gazes. She licked her lips and finally nodded. Great. Perfect. They were cops turned criminals. They were going to steal a car to flee persecution or something. They were going to run.

What choice did they have?

Would his family be safe if they didn't?

Would his family be safe if they did?

Too many question. No answers. No time. Nothing but panic. Either way, they had to go. They both knew that. So they gathered up what they could and abandoned their motel rooms.

They crossed on foot through the small town until they came upon a rusty looking blue Chevy truck parked forlornly on a street. He kept a watchful eye while Jill simply opened the door and went to town on the ancient wiring within the behemoth. Neither said a word when the thing fired up, grumbling like a grumpy old man as she took the wheel and he joined her in the passenger side.

She drove the first leg, he took the second while she dozed in the seat beside him. He kept picturing his parents turning into rotters with necrotic flesh dripping off their bones. The image nearly blinded him to the point he didn't realize they'd drifted into the opposite lane.

A truck horn sounded and woke him up from his internal reverie. He jerked the wheel, startled Jill awake, and had her grabbing his thigh in fear. Righting the truck, he apologized, gushing, "...sorry. Sorry. Shit."

"...you're a terrible driver."

He answered that with a dirty look.

She finished, "How hard is it to keep it in a straight line, rookie?"

Leon gave her a droll expression as she encouraged, "Try not to flip this bitch and kill us, ok?"

He focused on the road. Jill leaned back against the seat, stretching, "I guess I was out for the count, huh?"

"...looked that way."

"How far are we?"

"Best guess? We've got a days drive ahead of us. How much money do we have for gas in this guzzler?"

Jill rifled in her pockets, "...maybe eighty bucks. It'll have to get us as far as we can...and then..." She trailed off.

He sighed. "...then we steal something else."

"Exactly."

This was the worst road trip of his life.

They stopped to grab some food at a diner outside of Providence. Leon wore a ball cap and Jill ponytailed her hair and wore sunglasses. The truck was a gold mine of useless crap, so anything else salvageable consisted of a can of Copenhagen, two empty beer cans, and a pair of work boots. They shared some coffee and a cheap stack of pancakes.

They were just paying the bill when the television above the counter flashed on a news report. Jill's face popped up on the screen as the reporter cautioned the public about any information on the whereabouts of a potential terrorist cell. Her face, Chris' face, Brad and Barry. All of them flashed on screen. She was hoping Barry had hidden himself to avoid the fall out. Jill winced. Leon kept a hand on her elbow and guided her calmly from the restaurant before they made a scene.

They piled into the truck and hit the road again.

After a few miles between them and the diner, Jill whispered, "...I'm a fugitive."

Leon blew out a hard breath, "You suspected it would happen."

"...I was hoping I was wrong."

He said nothing.

She added, "They think I helped Nicholai with Raccoon City."

"...no. They know you didn't. They're using you for scape goat. You know that."

"...we handed them our own downfall, right? We gave them Nicholai. We basically gave them someone to blame."

Leon shook his head, "How could we know they'd do this? They're the good guys, right? How could we know?"

Jill laughed with ire, "Good guys? Damnit, Leon...there's no good guys anymore. Don't you get it? It's just us and them. We're on the run. They're trying to pin the whole thing on the S.T.A.R.S...you should get away from me. You weren't on the news. I was. You? You're just a kid who picked the wrong girl to run with. Get away from me while you still ca-"

"Shut up." His voice was hard and laced with resentment, "Shut up right now. There are good guys, Jill. There are. They're in this truck. They're right here. I won't leave you. So just shut up."

She looked out the window, shaking in her seat. She was scared. She couldn't lie about that. What chance did they have against the entire US government? They were wanted now. No. NO. SHE was wanted. She was. Leon...he was a fool.

A wonderful, noble, tough kid who needed to be smarter about who he chose to side with here. She was going to get him killed. She'd tried to fuck him like an idiot and erase her own pain, but it wasn't that simple. It wasn't even really about the sex. It was about the release. She needed something to take the edge off here and clear her mind.

She couldn't sleep. She hardly ate. She was nervous, naked in a world without rules anymore. She was afraid she'd get Leon killed and fail Chris and fall victim to her own nightmares. She wanted something to just...save her.

It was annoying to admit it, but there it was. She wanted to be saved. Where was Chris to save her? Irritated at the sexist line of thinking, she snapped, "You're gonna die being so fucking noble, Kennedy. Just an FYI."

He shook his head, looking young and determined in that ball cap, "Maybe, but at least I'll die knowing I'm on the right fucking side."

Her brows shot up. He didn't curse as much as she did. He didn't toss out the filth like a cop did. He was still sweet, somehow innocent, and surviving. She wanted to hug him for reminding her there were good people left in an increasingly dark world.

Her tone was teasing, "...you sound about twelve years old when you cuss."

His mouth twitched, "I feel it too. Like maybe my mother will pop out from behind the seat here and put soap in my mouth."

She patted his thigh with a smile, "Sorry for that. I'll get it together."

"It's ok to be afraid, Jill...we just gotta figure out how to work through it."

"I know that." She blew out a hard breath, "Get to Maine. Find Chris' old army buddy. Start there."

"We got a name on the buddy by chance?"

Jill rubbed the back of her neck, "Krauser. Jack Krauser. Special Ops guy or something. He was army maybe not Air Force, but he's one of those survivalist types now. Does mercenary work on the side Chris said and collects the big bucks. Lives like a weird recluse. Supposedly, Chris swears by his loyalty though...so what have we got to lose?"

Everything...but at least some plan was better than nothing.

* * *

**Circle - K just outside of Bangor, Maine**

* * *

The leaves were pretty this close to winter. They crunched nicely underfoot. They smelled like rain and snow lurking just around the corner. Your breath fogged out in white patches while you walked among them.

Jill stood with a cigarette in one gloved hand. The curling edge of acrid gray snaked around her nose as she surveyed their surroundings. She wondered as they waited how she'd even recognize Jack Krauser when and if he bothered to show up.

Chris had told her once that getting in touch with Jack was a bit of a chore. Phones were the work of the devil apparently, so calling him was out. She'd had to stop at the local post office and give a note to the postmaster there. Who was to say Krauser was even in this area anymore?

How would he know to meet her here?

She wasn't sure of any of these answers. She just knew that both Barry and Chris swore by the guy, so what choice did she have? He was their only hope to hide out until they could safely get to France. Even now, she was starting to wonder how bad things were for Chris. Had he sent her a signal? Was he warning her away? Was he calling out for help?

So many questions and no time for answers.

"Here. I got you some coffee."

Her gaze shifted to the rookie. One thing she knew, she had to protect him. He stuck to her like glue. He could have run and left her behind. He could have left her to die. He could have said goodbye and gone home.

He was still here.

That kind of loyalty deserved no less.

Jill took the coffee. Leon leaned beside her on the wall near the payphone. They'd been there for two hours. The back of his neck was starting to itch with paranoia. If this guy didn't show up soon, they were ditching this place. He was painfully aware of eyes all around them. Chances were they were clear of being tailed, at least he'd changed highways and roads and they'd ditched two different cars on the way up here. So if they were being followed, they'd done all they could to evade it.

But the itching on his neck was almost constant now.

They shared the coffee and the cigarette. Jill watched his face in the swirl of smoke. He seemed calm enough. He looked ok. He was putting on a brave face. She was panicking in her guts and trying to act cool.

What choice was there but to keep up the act? Neither wanted to worry the other. The truth was if the government was tailing them, they were fucked. They needed out of this country now. They needed to run.

They were trapped in a cage of their own paranoia.

It was pretty rough.

"At what point do we call this a wash?"

Jill sighed heavily, "Hard to say. What time is it?"

He glanced at his watch and started to answer...and the phone rang beside him. His brows shot up. Jill's steepled over her eyes in suspicion. Leon lifted the receiver to his ear and invited, "...yeah?"

The voice on the other end was gruff and thick, "Leave your weapons where I can see them."

"We don't-"

"Don't fucking lie to me, boy. You got a piece tucked in the back of your pants and your partner there has a knife strapped to her thigh. Don't make me say it again."

"Who is this?"

"...don't play dumb either. You came looking for me, not the other way around. You want my help? Start doing what I say."

Apparently, phones were ok for threats, just not for normal conversations. Leon lifted his gun and set it on top of the phone booth. Jill's brows winged up and he nodded to her. She tugged her knife free and set it beside the gun.

Krauser's voice came again, "Good. Now keep those hands where I can see them and walk toward the blue Honda parked in the last spot of the parking lot. Get in, the girl in the passenger seat and you in the back, and wait."

Leon licked his teeth in annoyance but finally nodded. Krauser instructed, "Good. Go. Now."

The line disconnected. Jill gave him a curious look and Leon shook his head. He started walking. She fell into step beside him and when he opened the door to the rusted sedan, she simply climbed in. He helped himself to the back and closed the door.

When the quiet warmth surrounded them, he told her, "I sure as hell you know what you're doing here."

Jill blew out a breath, "I don't. I really, really don't. What choice do I have? You want me to turn myself in?"

He shook his head. She nodded and told him, "Yeah...exactly. So let's just see where this goes. He can't be nearly as bad as a goddamn tentacle monster chasing me around a burning city."

The driver's door opened and a skinny black man got into the seat beside Jill. She watched him fire up the car and start driving. After a moment, Jill asked, "Jack?"

He said nothing.

He drove in silence for almost ten minutes before he veered onto a dirt road. They glanced at each other and Leon tried again, "Are you Krauser?"

The car stopped in the middle of the forest where they found themselves and the man finally told them, "Head east for a half a mile and wait."

He waited for them to exit the car. His gray hoodie was dingey and old. He looked tired but determined. They wouldn't get anything else out of him. So, Jill climbed out with Leon right after her.

The Honda pulled away and left them. Weaponless, they started through the woods. They walked a good distance before Leon finally spoke again, "...this is bullshit."

Jill agreed, but she got it. Krauser was some kind of a paranoid recluse. He wasn't going to meet them at the mall for a little coffee and donuts. He was making them earn his attention.

They reached what felt like the right distance and came to a stop. Jill started to reply and her gaze shifted over Leon's left shoulder. She froze. She'd wondered how she'd know who exactly was Jack Krauser if he'd shown up at the gas station.

Now, she knew it would have been impossible to overlook him. He was built like a brick shit house. Sheer muscle on muscle with a severe buzz cut over bright blue eyes and a comparatively handsome face. He was imposing as all hell. Made worse somehow by the enormous crossbow he was aiming at Leon's back.

Without a word, Jill lifted her hands up. Leon went statue still. Krauser? He simply said, "Lean on those goddamn trees and spread 'em."

They leaned. He frisked them one-handed. He was painfully efficient. He patted and rolled his hand against anywhere they might have hidden a weapon. When he groped around Jill's ribcage and at her bra, Leon snapped, "...hey!"

Krauser gave him a filthy look. "Please. You think I get my jollies feeling up skinny ass bitches like this? I like my women like I like my coffee - black, full-bodied, and piping hot."

He stepped away from Jill who found herself oddly insulted and jerked his head, "Start walking, start talking, and don't make me ask you again."

They walked. Jill gave him the abbreviated version of knowing Chris and knowing he was good at making people disappear. Krauser laughed and barked, "Stupid girl. You ever think _disappear _means _dead_? What if I fucking kill you both and bury your bodies? Who the hell will know you're gone?"

Jill stopped walking. Leon echoed her. She returned, "So do it already. I'm tired of this cloak and dagger shit. You want to kill us? Do it. We've done everything you've asked. Stop proving you're smarter than we are and either help us, send us away, or kill us. I've had the worst few days of my life recently, Jack. Dying don't scare me anymore. Go ahead."

The silence was loud. Leon gave her an expression she wanted to call anger. Why? Because she was telling the god's honest truth? She felt half-dead on a good day. What was left but either surviving or dying for real? She'd failed almost everyone in her life. If she died, who would mourn her? He was right about that. She had nothing left to lose.

Krauser gave her a look that was mildly impressed. Finally, he told her, "Good. Then you're halfway to knowing you don't know shit. Keep walking. Keep talking. Don't sugar coat it. I know where you came from. I know what Chris found in Raccoon. I got eyes, I read, I'm aware. So what do you want from me?"

"I want to get to him. I think I know where he is. I need your help to keep us hidden until we can get some shit together and get there."

Krauser blew out a hard breath. "Chris saved my life in a firefight more than once...I promised him I'd make us square one day..." He studied them and sighed, "This makes us square. Walk."

They walked. They were strangely silent. Leon barely spoke. Jill could feel his distrust. She couldn't blame him. It wasn't like she'd tell her life story to the guy, but Chris swore by him. Barry sang his praises. They weren't easy men to impress.

She had no other hope here. She had to trust Jack Krauser. She had no way of knowing it would be the worst mistake she'd ever make.

* * *

Jack gave them shelter for nearly a week. The first night was awkward and painful in his little three room cabin tucked away in the woods. She slept on the couch. Leon on the floor. Jack in his room.

They ate from packages called MRE's or Meal Ready to Eat. He'd gathered tons from his days in the army. He refused to eat any food that was bought locally. He'd amassed his own meals and trusted nothing else.

The second day Jack came across a curious sight. The kid was out in the trees apparently attempting to kickbox a tree or something. He stood there watching with amusement. In fairness, the kid was swift on those feet. He had promise, if absolutely no skill. When the kid tried to flip backward and fell on his face, Jack finally called out, "Stop looking at your feet!"

Spitting leaves, Leon rose from the ground with his head tilted. "Was I?"

"You did it twice. You want to stick the landing? Throw your head back and focus on where you're landing."

"...no offense but you look like you weigh like...two hundred fifty pounds. I'm supposed to think you can flip that huge bulk?"

Krauser snorted and stepped forward, "Maybe not like I used to, but yeah I can. The thing about surviving kid? You gotta be big _and _fast."

He proved his mettle and executed a pretty slick back flip. Impressed, Leon tilted his head at him. "...show me."

Krauser gave him a discerning look, "Why?"

"Why not? What else you doing today on hermit mountain? Lamenting the loss of a rational communist government?" Krauser arched a brow and Leon added, "...you look like the type who thinks democracy is for weenies."

Krauser snorted again, "Idle hands are the devil's playthings. This country? It's full of people with nothing but grasping ones. Communism? No. But do I think a swift kick in the ass is what sets people on the right path? Absolutely. Chaos charts a new course sometimes, kid. A steady mind...that comes from conflict. The military taught me to find strength in structure and create something impenetrable out of chaos."

Leon blew out a breath, "Sounds boring."

Jack gave him a roll of the eyes, "It makes men out of weenies. What were you? A rookie? Pretty stupid to think you know your ass from a hole in the ground. At this point, I'd be grateful you survived."

Leon gave him a cool look, "You gonna help me or not?"

Why not? Jack thought with a shrug. What else was he doing? The kid had balls, even if he had a flapping set of lips that spewed stupid shit sometimes. Eventually, that mouth was going to get him in trouble. Today though, it was going to get him the help he thought he wanted.

"First the flips..than the fists." Krauser gestured, "Show me what you got."

And so it went for the new three days. The third day, they started with some basic knife work. Leon found himself on the defensive before he gained enough skill to get one good slice on the other man.

Leon went to bed that night sore and bruised. He winced in the bathroom as he showered. Jack disappeared as he often did at night to wander the woods and contemplate the sad state of socialism or something.

Jill watched Leon put a bandage on his sliced bicep and queried, "...what are you doing?"

Their eyes met in the mirror above the sink. There was something on her face that made his breath catch a little as he answered, "...learning."

She tilted her head at him like he was more than she'd first seen. She stepped forward without another word and started helping put bandages on his wounds. Her fingers lingered in places and made his mouth dry.

She left him alone in the bathroom more determined than ever. Why? He wanted to impress her. That part was clear. He wanted to learn. He wanted to be better, faster, stronger and more. He wanted to be a help instead of a hindrance.

He wanted Jill Valentine to be glad he was with her.

Pathetic, but there it was.

When she tossed in a nightmare on the couch with the moonlight soft on her face, Leon simply leaned up from the floor and laid a hand on her shoulder. The gesture calmed her. She stilled as she slept. Her hand lifted and laid over his.

He laid back on the floor and blew out a breath.

When he thought she was sleeping, he kept his hand there anyway. After a long moment, she surprised him by saying, "...you think your blood made me immune?"

With a long breath blown out, Leon told her, "...I wish I knew. I don't know a damn thing. I feel like we're losing ground here."

She nodded on the couch. She wanted to hold onto that hand on her shoulder. She knew he was doing that almost nightly now, touching her shoulder to help her settle from nightmares. She hated the weakness of it.

She appreciated him being there.

She rolled to her side and his hand slid away from her as she returned, "We'll see about contacting Carlos in the morning. Maybe...maybe he'll have what we need."

Leon laid on the floor and hoped she was right. He was afraid they'd never leave if they stayed here too long. There was something about this place that beckoned you to become complacent. He understood the draw for Krauser. It was peaceful.

Why would you want to leave?

Peace was nice after what they'd seen and done. Peace was good. He coveted this time with her here in this place. That alone was reason to move. It was time to try to do what they'd promised. They needed to bring down Umbrella.

The question was how?

How did two people even begin to defeat a goliath like that?

Finding Chris was their first priority. The thought of Chris brought one of Claire to the forefront. Was she even aware? By now she knew Raccoon had fallen. Was she safe? Was she worried?

What kind of brother was it that abandoned his blood like that?

Another reason Leon wanted to find him, to demand answers on that one issue. Why leave her behind? Did he really believe he was protecting her?

The answers chased him into the dark of sleep.

* * *

As they slept, the man who'd offered them shelter felt the world tilting again. What had the girl said? Immune? Immune to what? To what had befallen Raccoon? The news had called it a terrorist attack but Krauser knew it was something more sinister than that.

The news was the bitch of the biased left. They relayed lies like a whore paid to spew them. They'd simply regurgitated the crap fed to them by the higher influenced.

Immune.

The kid? The girl? Both?

He pictured blue eyes and bouncing blonde curls. He'd had hope once. It had died in a way that haunted him and nearly driven him mad. What would he trade to have that back?

He'd promised Chris. He was a man of his word. A loyal man. A patirot.

What would he trade to feel hope again?

He never used phones unless he was without any other recourse. He hiked into town and picked up the payphone. He called the last number on Earth he'd ever wanted to again.

It rang and was answered. A familiar voice, a choice, a chance to redeem everything. Krauser took it without a single moment of regret, "I want what's mine. Can you give it to me?"

"...what are you offering?"

"...immunity."

Betraying Chris was the only way to feel alive again. Giving them up was the only option. He didn't know them. He didn't care. He didn't even wince.

He'd give up anyone on Earth to know that love again.

"...Jack...you will be rewarded."

He'd make damn sure that every word of that was true.


	13. Dawn13

**Gone by Dawn**

* * *

**Part Two:**

**-Underdog-**

* * *

**Chapter 13: Gone by Dawn**

* * *

The night was too dark.

Sometime later in his life, Leon Kennedy would look back on those few days in Jack Krauser's cabin with a sense of wonder. It was, without a doubt, the first real chance he had to get to know Jill. It was, without a doubt, the first real chance he had to process everything that had happened to them. He thought about his mother - the smell of her maple pancakes would haunt him the rest of his life- and how she'd never failed to leave him without the skills he'd need to take care of himself.

He remembered the time she'd taught him to sew on his own buttons and punch down a loaf of freshly rising bread. He remembered how her hair smelled like lavender when he'd been little and crashed his bike and she picked him up to hold him until he stopped crying. He remembered the way she'd sung him to sleep - the same lullaby at birth as she'd done in grade school. He'd punched his first opponent in the face for calling her fat on the school bus. He'd hugged her so hard the morning they'd buried his grandfather. He'd hugged her even harder the day he left for the academy. She was his rock, his hearth, his home...and part of him knew he might never see her again.

He thought about his father who'd cried for the first time in his life the day he'd left home. He thought about learning to ride that bike with his hand on the seat behind him - never, ever letting go until he was ready. He'd shouted, "You can let go now, Daddy!" So loud. So, so loud. His Dad had just...let go. When he'd left home, his Dad had held on so tight until Leon had reassured him, "It's ok, Dad. You can let go now." He'd known then that neither of them had really been ready. He knew now, lying on the floor in the cold cabin, that part of him was still there with them.

Part of him was still hanging around with his cousins at Hoover's Hardware and riding horses on the farm. Part of him was still in Raccoon City fighting for his life. Part of him was here holding the hand of a girl who couldn't sleep without nightmares. How many parts did it take to make the whole? Did he have enough for both of them? Did he have enough inside of him to keep on fighting?

Part of him was still holding onto the life he'd left behind. Part of him was hanging onto his family. His baby sister who'd barely been six when he'd left to become a big hero. His dog who'd chased the Jeep down the dirt driveway as he'd driven away. His heart that tried so hard to remember he was protecting them. He was protecting them like he'd tried so hard to do for those in that city they'd left behind. He was going to try his hardest to protect the girl on the couch tossing fitfully in a nightmare. It was how he honored them. It was how he forgave himself for letting them worry.

When he'd remember those days with Jill, he'd remember how they'd both simply needed the contact of the other to deal with the dreams. His weren't any better than hers. He couldn't stop picturing fire and blood. He smelled rot and ruin when he awoke. He'd dream of bloody babies and burning flesh. He hated that he couldn't just write it off as a thing they'd survived and move on. Sadly, the human mind didn't work that way.

He was a mess of emotions with no real idea when any of it would stop. The rollercoaster of Raccoon City was in constant motion. How did he get off?

On the couch, Jill moaned pitifully. She grabbed for her throat and he squeezed her other hand in his, soothing, "...I'm here. It's ok. It's not real."

Her harsh breathing filled the quiet dark before she spoke, hoarsely, "...I'm fucking tired of the dreams."

He was too. They were annoying. They needed to harden up to keep going here. This was going to get worse before it got better. They both knew that. It was time to get some of those guts that his sister was always claiming he was made of and get on with it.

Jill blew out a hard breath, "So how do we stop cowering in the dark?"

Neither of them had let go of the other one's hand yet. Neither seemed inclined to at the moment. Without a real clue as to what to say, Leon tried anyway, "I think we just keep going. I mean...we made it this far, right? We just gotta keep..." He sighed, "Just keep pushing."

Jill closed her eyes and sighed, "I don't have a clue where to start, Leon. I mean...what if we're just going to be chasing our tails? How can we get to Europe? It's not like we can just buy tickets. We have no money, no passports...hell...we barely have any clothes."

Leon shook his head a little, "We're alive...so maybe we're doing ok."

Damn him. He was such a hopeful person. She wanted to suck some of that hope out of his neck like a vampire sometimes. Glad he was there, she rolled to her side on the couch to meet his eyes in the dark, "How do you just...look at the bright side so much?"

He shrugged a little, "Imagine if we were both looking at the other one...we'd stay cowering in the dark forever, right?"

He was kind of a genius sometimes when he talked. She wondered if he knew it. He was, literally, the least arrogant person she'd ever met. He was so humble he made her feel ashamed of herself for any narcissism she even attempted to retain. He talked about home like he'd been blessed with a beautiful family life. She was a little jealous of his childhood. She knew he came from roots as strong and as deep as the love he clearly bore those who were likely somewhere mourning him.

She was sorry as hell for him even at the same time she was glad he was there. Did that make her a bitch? She was glad she wasn't alone. She could feel that and still feel bad for him.

So, she felt like maybe she could break her own rules about getting close to someone and let him know that. Softly, she confessed, "...I'm really glad you're here, Leon."

She watched his lips lift in the semi-darkness. "You hitting on me?"

Jill scoffed lightly, but her eyes twinkled in the moonlight, "You wish. Pretty sure that ship has sailed. You shot me down, remember?"

His fingers wove between hers where he held it on his chest as he confided, "Not for the reasons you think, I promise you."

She sighed and teased, "What? You gay?"

He laughed lightly, "Nope. Not even close."

"You're pretty enough to be gay."

Amused, he tilted his head, "You have to be pretty to be gay?"

She grinned a little, "Men like pretty women. Makes sense they'd like pretty men too."

"...what about you..." He arched a brow, "You like pretty men?"

She started to joke back and something on his face in the dark changed the mood in a flash of a second. He tugged on her arm, she came down atop him on the floor with a grunt as she landed, and a whistling joined the dart that stuck in the cushions of the sofa where she'd been. Whatever sanctuary they'd had, it was over just like that.

They rolled apart and stayed crouched. Jill whispered, "Go left, toward the back door."

"...don't you think they've got us surrounded?"

"You got a better plan?" She queried with a snap of command, "Get moving."

He ignored the shiver of desire to argue with her bossy tone and simply shifted toward the hallway. He was halfway down it when the bedroom door opened and Jack emerged. Leon whispered up at him from his crouch, "Get down, Jack! They've found us!"

From where he stood, Jack simply returned, "...I know. Sorry, kid."

The kick to the face was so fast that Leon simply wasn't prepared. He went over, he went back and smacked into the wall. Jill gasped and came toward them and Leon slid to his side on the floor with the world flashing white. Jack grabbed for Jill as she reached for Leon and jerked her up against him.

She shouted and fought, kicking and jerking against his grip but he simply turned her back to his front, compressed her throat with a cross arm and it was like a fly fighting a giant. There was no hope for her to win.

"Settle down, sweetie, before I squeeze too hard."

On the floor, Leon started to get to his feet and Jack simply kicked him again in the stomach. Jill gasped high and scared as Jack told them, "Sorry, kids. I had the world once...this is the only way I get it back."

What did that even mean!?

Leon started to rise, Jack swung his foot again, and Leon caught it and twisted. The big man, surprised, slung Jill at the man on the floor to combat falling. She tripped on Leon and went down on her hands and knees. They tried to separate and the door burst open.

Men in masks with assault rifles piled into the tiny cabin. One commanded, "Stay down."

Leon started to rise and the whistling sound joined the dart in the back of his neck. Jill shouted in rage and they shot her too. Apparently, not moving got you the same treatment as moving.

The world shimmered as they collapsed to the ground again. Jill's hand skimmed Leon's face as his eyes wavered and shut. She whimpered pathetically as the drug over took her system her eyes blurred, trembled, and put her down in the dark she was so desperately afraid would spell the end of them both.

* * *

He could smell gasoline or something. The acrid stench permeated his nostrils in an offensive way. It roused him, Leon groaning as his hands found purchase on cold stone and his upper body propelled itself from the ground in a trembling push up.

His tired eyes cracked open.

He froze when his vision finally made sense of what he was seeing.

He wasn't in some facility somewhere in a lab or handcuffed to something. He was in a cell. A nine by six wide prison cell with a damp floor and a suggestion of smoke and something burning in the putrid air around him.

Fear slithered in his belly as he sat up completely, rubbing at his eyes to finish clearing the fog from them. A darkened desk with a single lamp was slightly down the hall from his cell. Another row of cells were lined up on both sides of his own.

The first to the left was empty; the one to the right held - "Jill!" She was tossed negligently on a dirty cot in her cell. The stains on the bed looked like old blood or something. She grunted and moaned softly as her eyes flickered open.

She spotted him, blinked with confusion, and queried, "...Leon? What the-?"

She sat up with a gasp of fear. "...oh my god..."

Leon grunted, "Yeah. Exactly. What the hell?"

"Not what..._where _the hell?"

He nodded, "Exactly."

There was a jingle of noise and a clomp of boots coming toward them from the dark hallway. They both backed away to the furthest edge of their cells. They were both picturing the Nemesis, he was nearly sure of that. Jill reached through the bars toward him and gripped his hand for a moment, "Stay alive."

He nodded, giving her his best tough-guy face as he confirmed, "Stay alive."

They both lifted their fists to fight and a voice instructed, "...no need for that. I'm in no shape for it."

A man carrying a lantern limped into view. He was holding his side with one hand and a big ring of keys pressed to his belly. He stopped first at Leon's cell and unlocked it before moving to Jill's as he told them, "Welcome to Rockfort Prison...or what's left of it. There's nobody really left but us I think...but hey...it never hurts to hope."

He collapsed into the chair by the desk and tossed the keys on the desk. Neither Jill nor Leon had exited their cells so he continued, "Doesn't matter how you got here. Doesn't matter what you did. I don't care. I don't give a shit. I figure I got...what...three hours? Maybe less. So who really cares?"

He slumped further in the chair and it was obvious he was holding his hands over a bloody wound. It looked black in the dark. "Go up those stairs and run. Run as fast as you can. Get to the dock, get the hell outta here if you can. I don't think anyone else made it. The screams..." He trailed off and shook his head, "Doesn't matter. It's over. Take this."

He gestured to the gun lying on the desk. Jill and Leon still hadn't emerged from their cells. So, the man barked, "Get the fuck outta there! Are you stupid?! You wanna die down here? I said go!"

Leon emerged first and offered, "...maybe...maybe you should come with us...there's gotta be someone who can help, right?"

"Didn't you hear a word I said?" Jeered the dying man, "There's no one but us. I'm fucked. I'm done for. You two...beat it. I mean it. Take this gun and go before I shoot you both on principle."

Leon took the gun to avoid the possibility the man would keep his promise. Jill hesitated in the dark and the man told her, "Can't give you my lantern, but here." He tossed a lighter on the desk beside the lantern, "Never know when you might need some light, ya know?"

She took the Zippo and pocketed it. Leon was reading the log on the desk. He reached a single name and gasped, "Redfield!?"

Jill grabbed the log and demanded, "Redfield, C. C? Chris?!"

The man shook his head, "Redfield's a girl - Claire I think? She was down here until about an hour ago. They moved here when shit went south. Good luck on finding her now. My suggestion? You run and you don't ever look back."

Jill gave Leon a desperate look, "If she's here..."

"I know...we have to find her." He turned toward the staircase that was steadily leaking smoke down into the dark. Who knew what waited up there? God knew what had happened. What if it was another Raccoon City? They'd barely survived the first time.

What were the odds they would again?

But Claire...Claire had been taken. Why? He knew why they'd taken him and Jill. But why take Claire? Because of Chris?

The man in the chair scoffed lightly, "...best guess on a girl that pretty is the Mansion. I know the crazy Ashfords were looking for a new maid, maybe..." He coughed, hard, and blood spilled down his chin. He was right, he was done for - had something taken a bite out of him? "...fuck...maybe she's there. Good luck getting there. The training ground and the prison are on the far side of the island...the only way to the mansion is through the grounds. Last time I tried..." His hand trailed down to his side and gestured at his wound, "This is what bravery gets you. Don't be stupid here...don't be brave."

He leaned back in the chair and took a heavy breath, "Get out. Go on. Let me die in peace like the last of the fools who didn't run when the whole world started burning."

Jill hesitated, wanting to help, but they all knew he was dead in that chair. Without medical attention, he didn't have long. So, she tried to offer some solace, "Maybe you could come with us? We might be able to -"

"No." He laughed, "No. Please no. I'm never setting foot out there again. The thing that got me...I'd never out run it twice. Ya know..I just wanted to do something that mattered. I thought this job would be cake...my mistake. I should have known they were making monsters out of those prisoners. Why else have an obscure prison on an island? Why else was there never anyone that came over from the mainland?...fools...we're all fools."

Jill glanced at Leon as the man bid them one last farewell, "You're gonna want to get gone by dawn...that's when the tanks are set to release in the lab. The things in those tanks...you don't want to wait to see what they can do. Run, ya hear me?" And now he shouted it, "RUN!"

They moved toward the narrow stairwell. Leon looked stricken at leaving a living man behind, but Jill told him, "Claire...we have to find Claire."

He nodded. He blew out a hard breath. They eased up the staircase and found themselves in a graveyard. The horror was ripe and rich in the air going oily with the burning night. Lumbering through the driving rain and whipping wind was their worst fear - a zombie wearing a prison guard uniform and moaning for blood.

Jill shook her head in denial. Leon whispered, "...how...? Why? Why are we here?"

She answered, voice thick with anger and regret, "Why else? Jack sold us out. He handed us over. You heard that guy back there...we're meant to be experimented on. What better way to get rid of us?"

Leon's denial flashed into determination on his face. He flashed his teeth in the rain, "So we show them we're no one's pawns. We survived once...we'll do it again. We find Claire and we find a way off this island."

Jill nodded. She breathed slow and steady for a moment to center herself. "...dawn. We just have to get off this island before the sun comes up."

They both glanced at the sky. They both glanced at each other. They'd survived once by the skin of their teeth. What was the likelihood they'd live again, rescue the missing girl, and make it to safety before the island was overrun by even more dangerous monsters?

Impossible. The odds? Impossible.

It was a good damn thing they weren't alone. Maybe together, impossible odds just might be something they could beat. All they had to do was get gone by dawn.

* * *

_Post Note: This is the last chapter in the first of this series of stories. The next will take us through to a new version of Degeneration. I'm working on restructuring their entire history together. What will happen to Claire? Where's Chris? Is the world ready for different duo working to bring down Umbrella?_

_We'll find out together in the next installment: **Dark Before the Dawn. **_


End file.
